Download and Read online, DOWNLOAD EBOOK, [PDF EBOOK EPUB ], Ebooks

download, Read Ebook EPUB/KINDE, Download Book Format PDF

Continuum Mechanics with Eulerian Formulations of

Constitutive Equations M.B. Rubin

OR CLICK LINK
https://textbookfull.com/product/continuum-
mechanics-with-eulerian-formulations-of-
constitutive-equations-m-b-rubin/

Read with Our Free App Audiobook Free Format PFD EBook, Ebooks dowload PDF
with Andible trial, Real book, online, KINDLE , Download[PDF] and Read and Read
Read book Format PDF Ebook, Dowload online, Read book Format PDF Ebook,
[PDF] and Real ONLINE Dowload [PDF] and Real ONLINE
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Computational Continuum Mechanics Ahmed A. Shabana

https://textbookfull.com/product/computational-continuum-
mechanics-ahmed-a-shabana/

Computational Continuum Mechanics of Nanoscopic

Structures Nonlocal Elasticity Approaches Esmaeal
Ghavanloo

https://textbookfull.com/product/computational-continuum-
mechanics-of-nanoscopic-structures-nonlocal-elasticity-
approaches-esmaeal-ghavanloo/

Tensor Algebra and Tensor Analysis for Engineers With

Applications to Continuum Mechanics Fourth Edition
Mikhail Itskov

https://textbookfull.com/product/tensor-algebra-and-tensor-
analysis-for-engineers-with-applications-to-continuum-mechanics-
fourth-edition-mikhail-itskov/

Tensor Algebra and Tensor Analysis for Engineers With

Applications to Continuum Mechanics Third Edition
Mikhail Itskov

https://textbookfull.com/product/tensor-algebra-and-tensor-
analysis-for-engineers-with-applications-to-continuum-mechanics-
third-edition-mikhail-itskov/
Nonlinear Continuum Mechanics for Finite Elasticity-
Plasticity: Multiplicative Decomposition with
Subloading Surface Model 1st Edition Koichi Hashiguchi

https://textbookfull.com/product/nonlinear-continuum-mechanics-
for-finite-elasticity-plasticity-multiplicative-decomposition-
with-subloading-surface-model-1st-edition-koichi-hashiguchi/

Size Dependent Continuum Mechanics Approaches Theory

and Applications 1st Edition Esmaeal Ghavanloo

https://textbookfull.com/product/size-dependent-continuum-
mechanics-approaches-theory-and-applications-1st-edition-esmaeal-
ghavanloo/

Mathematical Analysis of Continuum Mechanics and

Industrial Applications III Proceedings of the
International Conference CoMFoS18 Hiromichi Itou

https://textbookfull.com/product/mathematical-analysis-of-
continuum-mechanics-and-industrial-applications-iii-proceedings-
of-the-international-conference-comfos18-hiromichi-itou/

Theory of Differential Equations in Engineering and

Mechanics 1st Edition Kam Tim Chau

https://textbookfull.com/product/theory-of-differential-
equations-in-engineering-and-mechanics-1st-edition-kam-tim-chau/

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics: Fundamentals and Basic

Applications in Continuum Mechanics Carlos Alberto
Dutra Fraga Filho

https://textbookfull.com/product/smoothed-particle-hydrodynamics-
fundamentals-and-basic-applications-in-continuum-mechanics-
carlos-alberto-dutra-fraga-filho/
Solid Mechanics and Its Applications

M. B. Rubin

Continuum
Mechanics
with Eulerian
Formulations
of Constitutive
Equations
Solid Mechanics and Its Applications

Volume 265

Founding Editor
G. M. L. Gladwell, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

Series Editors
J. R. Barber, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, MI, USA
Anders Klarbring, Mechanical Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping,
Sweden
The fundamental questions arising in mechanics are: Why?, How?, and How much?
The aim of this series is to provide lucid accounts written by authoritative
researchers giving vision and insight in answering these questions on the subject of
mechanics as it relates to solids. The scope of the series covers the entire spectrum
of solid mechanics. Thus it includes the foundation of mechanics; variational
formulations; computational mechanics; statics, kinematics and dynamics of rigid
and elastic bodies; vibrations of solids and structures; dynamical systems and
chaos; the theories of elasticity, plasticity and viscoelasticity; composite materials;
rods, beams, shells and membranes; structural control and stability; soils, rocks and
geomechanics; fracture; tribology; experimental mechanics; biomechanics and
machine design. The median level of presentation is the first year graduate student.
Some texts are monographs defining the current state of the field; others are
accessible to final year undergraduates; but essentially the emphasis is on
readability and clarity.
Springer and Professors Barber and Klarbring welcome book ideas from
authors. Potential authors who wish to submit a book proposal should contact
Dr. Mayra Castro, Senior Editor, Springer Heidelberg, Germany,
email: [email protected]
Indexed by SCOPUS, Ei Compendex, EBSCO Discovery Service, OCLC,
ProQuest Summon, Google Scholar and SpringerLink.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6557

M. B. Rubin

Continuum Mechanics
with Eulerian Formulations
of Constitutive Equations

123
M. B. Rubin
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa, Israel

ISSN 0925-0042 ISSN 2214-7764 (electronic)

Solid Mechanics and Its Applications
ISBN 978-3-030-57775-9 ISBN 978-3-030-57776-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57776-6
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is dedicated to my loving wife
Laurel and my children and (grandsons):
Adam & Dana (Leo & Tom); Daniel & Sefi.
Preface

My interest in mechanics was stimulated by my Scout Master Henry Layton when I

was a Boy Scout. Henry was a mechanical engineer and a patent examiner who
helped us build mini-bikes using bicycle parts and lawn mower engines. During my
teenage years I bought a Craftsmen tool set at Sears and Roebuck, which I used to
work on my cars and motorcycles. At the University of Colorado in Boulder, where
I did my undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, I learned that mathe-
matics, vectors and tensors are the tools that I needed to truly understand the
fundamentals of mechanics. Fortunately at Boulder, Prof. Frank Essenburg and
Prof. William Wainwright helped me develop analytical skills and physical thinking
needed to deepen my knowledge. They both encouraged me to continue my studies
for a Ph.D. in applied mechanics after I graduated in December 1972.
I applied to the University of California at Berkeley and was accepted in the
Department of Mechanical Engineering as a graduate student in applied mechanics.
During my last semester at Boulder I took a course in continuum mechanics from a
fluid mechanics professor who, unfortunately, really couldn’t explain the deep
physics of continuum mechanics. This caused me to change my major to bio-
engineering when I arrived at Berkeley for the fall quarter of 1973. However, I
enrolled in a continuum mechanics course taught by Prof. Paul Naghdi who was
clear, rigorous and explained the physical foundations. I thought then that if I
studied bioengineering I would not know enough biology to formulate a problem
and I would not know enough engineering to solve it. Consequently, I returned to
applied mechanics and was truly fortunate to have Paul as a thesis advisor. Through
my research, I have continued my interest in bioengineering. In my opinion, this
interdisciplenary field requires experts from different fields to communicate and
interact to make real progress.
Paul was a critical thinker who had the unique ability to read something that he
had written as if he were an objective expert reading it for the first time. This talent
helped him identify flaws in traditional approaches and create new ideas and for-
mulations. My numerous discussions with Paul, both as a graduate student and as a
colleague, challenged me and helped me develop as an independent researcher. I am
immensely indebted to Paul for investing so much time to inspire and shape me as a

vii
viii Preface

researcher in continuum mechanics. Later I learned that both Frank Essenburg and
William Wainwright were students of Paul so it is not surprising that I was attracted
to Paul’s lectures at Berkeley.
In August of 1979 I began work as a research engineer at SRI International.
During my job interview I was told that as a theoretician I have to be willing to do
experiments. At SRI, I was aided by a team of excellent technicians who taught me
about many experimental problems as I acted as the supervisor of experiments. This
exposure gave me a great appreciation for the difficulties of doing a good experi-
ment, which has helped put a more physical perspective on my research over the
years.
In October 1982 I moved to Israel with my wife Laurel to join the Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering at Techion—Israel Institute of Technology, where I have
spent my entire academic career, retiring as a Professor Emeritus in October 2019.
I developed a friendship and working relationship with my senior colleague Prof.
Sol Bodner, who was an experienced engineer with interests in both theory and
experiments. My numerous discussions with Sol exposed me to the field of vis-
coplasticity and taught me how to think more physically about material response.
I am also very much indebted to Sol for investing so much time in my development.
I have been teaching the course Introduction to Continuum Mechanics at
Technion since the spring semester of 1983. The course and this book are based on
the lecture notes of Paul Naghdi at Berkeley. Details of the presentation of this
material have changed over the years as my understanding of continuum mechanics
evolved due to my research and interactions with students, graduate students and
colleagues, especially Prof. Eli Altus, with whom I had many discussions. During
the first meeting of this course, I tell the students that continuum mechanics is a
deep subject and that I am still learning after having been an active researcher in
continuum mechanics for over 40 years. In my opinion, continuum mechanics is a
theoretical umbrella for almost all of engineering because the thermomechanical
theory applies to a broad range of solid materials (elastic, elastic–inelastic, elastic–
viscoelastic) and fluid materials (gases, inviscid, viscous and viscoelastic liquids).
Continuum mechanics provides a theoretical framework to ensure that we don’t
make fundamental blunders. However, the true beauty of the field is that we will
always be challenged to use our theoretical expertise and physical intuition to
synthesize experimental data to propose functional forms for constitutive equations
that describe new important features of material response that needs to be modeled.
My experience has also been enriched by having been a regular Visiting Faculty
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) since 1985. Dr. Lewis Glenn
and Dr. Willy Moss were my first boss and colleague, respectively, at LLNL. Over
the years I have had the opportunity to work with a number of very talented
researchers at LLNL who have contributed to some of the constitutive equations
presented in this book. At LLNL, I was exposed to the field of shock physics in
geological materials which challenged me to develop specific functional forms for
strongly coupled thermomechanical response that can be used to match experi-
mental data. The exposure to real problems and the ability to work with excellent
computational mechanics people at LLNL has enriched my ability to think
Preface ix

physically. Often I would have a number of ideas why the simulations using the
constitutive equations for a particular material do not match experimental data. In
working with my colleagues at LLNL I realized that it is important to find the
simplest way to “hack” the computer code to test an idea to see if it really makes a
difference. Once the ideal that makes a difference has been identified, then it is
necessary to develop the constitutive equations rigorously. It remains a challenge to
ensure that the “hack” is removed and the rigorous equations have been programed.
In addition, at LLNL I learned the importance of numerical algorithms. This has
particular relevance for the development of constitutive equations. Theoreticians
can often propose different functional forms which model the same limiting cases.
When working with computational mechanics it is important to choose those
functional forms for modeling a specific material response which have the correct
limits but also simplify the numerical algorithm.
I am also indebted to my colleague and friend Prof. Mahmood Jabareen in the
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Technion. His computational
mechanics expertise was essential for the transition of the Cosserat Point Element
(CPE) technology from a theoretical concept that I proposed in 1985 to algorithms
that have been implemented in the commercial computer code LS-DYNA. We also
collaborated on a number of papers which have shaped some of the ideas presented
in this book, especially those on physical orthotropic invariants, the formulation of
constitutive equations with a smooth elastic–inelastic transition and growth of
biological materials. My graduate student and Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr. Mahmoud
Safadi learned computational mechanics from Prof. Jabareen which was essential
for his successful implementation of the constitutive equations for growth in the
commercial computer code Abaqus. His expertise was used for simulations in our
joint papers that highlighted the importance of the Eulerian formulation for growth.
In addition, discussions with Dr. Gal Shmuel and Prof. Reuven Segev helped
improve the presentation of the notions of a uniform material, a homogeneous
material and a uniform material state. Prof. Roger Fosdick and Prof. Albrecht
Bertram provided constructive criticism that improved the presentation of invari-
ance under Superposed Rigid Body Motions, especially for constrained materials.
Also, my wife Laurel proofread this book which helped identify and correct a
number of typographical errors.
I am certain that engineers are essential to the future of Israel. Therefore, I am
honored to be a Professor Emeritus from Technion, which is the best engineering
university in Israel. Having taught at Technion makes me feel that I have con-
tributed to the future of Israel through students who have been influenced by my
teaching. In particular, I derive great satisfaction knowing that some of my graduate
students have made significant contributions to the security and economic devel-
opment of Israel. I am sure that I could not attain such personal satisfaction in my
profession having been a professor anywhere else in the world.
I would also like to acknowledge the German Israel Foundation (GIF), the Israel
Science Foundation (ISF) and my Gerard Swope Chair in Mechanics which pro-
vided financial support over the years.
x Preface

My research on large deformation inelasticity and on growth of biological

materials has caused me to develop an Eulerian formulation of constitutive equa-
tions for elastic and inelastic response. The important physical feature of the
Eulerian formulation is that it removes arbitrariness of the choice of: a reference
configuration, an intermediate zero-stress configuration, a total deformation mea-
sure and an inelastic deformation measure. The main new features of this book are
the discussion of the importance of the Eulerian formulation and the demonstration
of how it can be used to develop a broad range of specific constitutive equations in
thermomechanics.

Haifa, Israel M. B. Rubin

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Content of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Comparison of the Lagrangian and Eulerian Formulations . . . . . . 2
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Basic Tensor Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Vector Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Indicial Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 Direct Notation (Special Case) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.4 Direct Notation (General Case) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.5 Tensor Calculus in Rectangular Cartesian Coordinates . . . . . . . . 24
2.6 Additional Definitions and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.7 Transformation Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3 Kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.1 Bodies, Configurations and Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2 Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.3 Deformation Gradient and Deformation Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4 Polar Decomposition Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.5 Velocity Gradient and Rate of Deformation Tensors . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.6 Deformation: Interpretations and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.7 Rate of Deformation: Interpretations and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.8 Superposed Rigid Body Motions (SRBM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.9 Material Line, Material Surface and Material Volume . . . . . . . . . 62
3.10 Reynolds Transport Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.11 An Eulerian Formulation of Evolution Equations for Elastic
Deformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 68
3.12 Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 73

xi
xii Contents

3.13 Strongly Objective, Robust Numerical Integration

Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .................... 74
3.14 The Total Deformation Gradient Used to Parameterize
Specific Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .................... 77
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .................... 79
4 Balance Laws for the Purely Mechanical Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.1 Conservation of Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.2 Balances of Linear and Angular Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.3 Existence of the Stress Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.4 Local Forms of the Balance Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.5 Rate of Material Dissipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.6 Referential Forms of the Equations of Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.7 Invariance Under Superposed Rigid Body Motions (SRBM) . . . . 98
4.8 An Alternative Derivation of the Local Balance Laws . . . . . . . . . 102
4.9 Initial and Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.10 Linearization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5 Purely Mechanical Constitutive Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.1 The Classical Lagrangian Formulation for Nonlinear Elastic
Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.2 Unphysical Arbitrariness of the Lagrangian Formulation
of Constitutive Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.3 An Eulerian Formulation for Nonlinear Elastic Solids . . . . . . . . . 120
5.4 Difference Between the Microstructural Vectors mi
and the Deformation Gradient F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.5 Homogeneity and Uniformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.6 Material Symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.7 Kinematic Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.8 Isotropic Nonlinear Elastic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.9 Viscous and Inviscid Fluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.10 Viscous Dissipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
5.11 Elastic–Inelastic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
5.12 Viscoelastic Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.13 Crystal Plasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
6 Thermomechanical Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6.1 Thermomechanical Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6.2 Balance Laws for the Thermomechanical Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
6.3 Second Laws of Thermomechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
6.4 Invariance Under Superposed Rigid Body Motions (SRBM) . . . . 182
6.5 Thermal Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
6.6 Thermoelastic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Contents xiii

6.7 Thermoelastic–Inelastic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

6.8 Orthotropic Thermoelastic–Inelastic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
6.9 Thermoelastic–Inelastic Materials for Shock Waves . . . . . . . . . . 204
6.10 Thermoelastic–Inelastic Porous Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
6.11 Thermoelastic–Inelastic Theory for Growth of Biological
Tissues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
6.12 Jump Conditions for the Thermomechanical Balance Laws . . . . . 227
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Appendix A: Eigenvalues, Eigenvectors and Principal Invariants

of a Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Appendix B: Consequences of Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Appendix C: Lagrange Multipliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Appendix D: Stationary Values of the Normal and Shear Stresses . . . . . 247
Appendix E: Isotropic Tensors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Appendix F: An Introduction to Tensors with Respect to Curvilinear
Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Appendix G: Summary of Tensor Operations in Specific Coordinate
Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Chapter 1
Introduction

Abstract The objective of this introductory chapter is to present an overview of

the contents of this book and to discuss the importance of Eulerian formulations of
constitutive equations. Specifically, simple one-dimensional examples are used to
identify unphysical arbitrariness in the classical Lagrangian formulations of consti-
tutive equations that can and should be removed.

1.1 Content of the Book

Continuum mechanics is concerned with the fundamental equations that describe

the nonlinear thermomechanical response of all deformable media. Throughout this
book, attention is limited to a simple material whose constitutive response does not
depend on higher order gradients of deformation. Although the constitutive equations
are phenomenological and are proposed to model the macroscopic response of mate-
rials, they are reasonably accurate for many studies of micro- and nano-mechanics
where the typical length scales approach, but are still larger than, those of individ-
ual atoms. In this sense, the general thermomechanical theory provides a theoretical
umbrella for most areas of study in mechanical engineering. In particular, continuum
mechanics includes as special cases theories of: solids (elastic, inelastic, viscoelastic,
etc.), fluids (compressible, incompressible, viscous) and the thermodynamics of heat
conduction including dissipation due to inelastic effects.
A number of books have been written which discuss the fundamentals of contin-
uum mechanics [5, 7, 9, 11], the theory of elasticity [1, 12], the theory of plasticity
[2, 3] as well as the thermomechanical theory [18]. The new aspect of this book is its
emphasis on an Eulerian formulation of constitutive equations for elastic materials,
elastic–inelastic materials and growing biological tissues. The standard Lagrangian
formulation of constitutive equations and the need for an Eulerian formulation will be
discussed in detail from a physical point of view and specific constitutive equations
will be described for different classes of materials.
Apart from this introduction, the material in this book on continuum mechan-
ics is divided into five chapters. Chapter 2 develops a basic knowledge of tensor

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

M. B. Rubin, Continuum Mechanics with Eulerian Formulations of Constitutive
Equations, Solid Mechanics and Its Applications 265,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57776-6_1
2 1 Introduction

analysis using both indicial notation and direct notation. Although tensor opera-
tions in general curvilinear coordinates are needed to express spatial derivatives like
those in the gradient and divergence operators, these special operations required to
translate quantities in direct notation to component forms in special coordinate sys-
tems are merely mathematical in nature. Moreover, details of general curvilinear
tensor analysis unnecessarily complicate the presentation of the fundamental physi-
cal issues in continuum mechanics. Consequently, here attention is mainly restricted
to tensors expressed in terms of constant rectangular Cartesian base vectors to sim-
plify the discussion of spatial derivatives and to concentrate on the main physical
issues. However, an introduction to tensors with respect to curvilinear coordinates is
presented in Appendix F.
Chapter 3 develops tools to analyze nonlinear deformation and motion of continua.
Specifically, measures of deformation and their rates are introduced. Also, the group
of Superposed Rigid Body Motions (SRBM) is introduced for later fundamental
analysis of invariance of constitutive equations under SRBM.
Chapter 4 develops the balance laws that are applicable for simple continua, which
are characterized by local measures of deformation. The notion of the stress tensor
and its relationship to the traction vector is developed. Local forms of the equations
of motion are derived from the global forms of the balance laws. Referential forms
of the equations of motion are discussed and the relationships between different
stress measures are developed for completeness, but they are not used in the Eulerian
formulation of constitutive equations. Also, invariance under SRBM of the balance
laws and the kinetic quantities are discussed.
Chapter 5 presents an introduction to constitutive theory. Although there is gen-
eral consensus on the kinematics of continua, the notion of constitutive equations for
special materials remains an active area of research in continuum mechanics. Specifi-
cally, in these sections the theoretical structure of constitutive equations for nonlinear
anisotropic elastic solids, isotropic elastic solids, viscous and inviscid fluids, viscous
dissipation, elastic–inelastic solids and viscoelastic solids are discussed.
Chapter 6 describes thermomechanical processes and the fundamental balance
laws and restrictions of second laws of thermomechanics that control these pro-
cesses. In addition, specific constitutive equations for: thermoelastic materials,
thermoelastic–inelastic materials, orthotropic thermoelastic–inelastic materials,
shock waves, porous materials and growing biological tissues are discussed. Also,
jump conditions for the thermomechanical balance laws are developed.

1.2 Comparison of the Lagrangian and Eulerian

Formulations

Unphysical arbitrariness of the choices of: the reference configuration; a zero-stress

intermediate configuration; a total deformation measure and a plastic deformation
measure has been discussed in a series of papers [15–17]. To simplify the discussion
1.2 Comparison of the Lagrangian and Eulerian Formulations 3

Fig. 1.1 Response of a homogeneous nonlinear elastic material to homogeneous proportional

loading in shear from a uniform zero-stress material state A to a uniform loaded material state B
with unloading along the same path back to the same uniform zero-stress material state A

=0

A =0 B

Fig. 1.2 Sketch of the deformation of a homogeneous nonlinear elastic material subjected to
homogenous proportional loading in shear from a uniform zero-stress material state A to a uniform
loaded material state B with unloading along the same path back to the same uniform zero-stress
material state A

of these issues, here attention is limited to the purely mechanical theory at constant
zero-stress reference temperature.
Figure 1.1 shows the shear stress τ versus the total shear strain γ for a homo-
geneous nonlinear elastic material subjected to homogeneous proportional loading
from a uniform zero-stress material state A to a uniform loaded material state B
with unloading along the same path to the same uniform zero-stress material state
A. Figure 1.2 shows a sketch of the associated deformations.
These figures exhibit the property that a homogeneous nonlinear elastic material
in a uniform zero-stress material state, which is loaded to a deformed state, will
return to its zero-stress shape and volume when unloaded. In this sense the nonlinear
elastic material remembers its zero-stress shape and density. This also suggests that
the response of a homogeneous nonlinear elastic material can be characterized by a
Lagrangian formulation of the constitutive equation in terms of a Lagrangian strain
that measures deformations from a reference configuration with a uniform stress-free
material state and vanishes in this reference configuration.
Figure 1.3 shows the shear stress τ versus the total shear strain γ for a homo-
geneous nonlinear elastic–plastic material subjected to homogeneous proportional
4 1 Introduction

Fig. 1.3 Response of a

B
homogeneous nonlinear
elastic–plastic material to
homogeneous proportional
loading in shear from a
uniform zero-stress material
state A to a uniform loaded
material state B with
unloading along a different
path to a uniform zero-stress
material state C with a
residual total strain γ p A C
p

loading from a uniform zero-stress material state A to a uniform loaded material

state B with unloading along a different path to a uniform zero-stress material state
C with a residual total strain γ p . Figure 1.4 shows a sketch of the associated deforma-
tions. Motivated by the Lagrangian formulation of elastic response, in addition to the
Lagrangian total strain from the reference configuration, it is common to introduce a
plastic deformation (see γ p in Fig. 1.3) measured from the reference configuration to
the uniform zero-stress intermediate configuration (see state C in Fig. 1.3). Also, it
is common to define an elastic deformation measure in terms of the total and plastic
deformation measures. In this sense, the plastic deformation measure is a history-
dependent variable that is determined by integrating an evolution equation for its
time rate of change.
Onat [13] discussed physical restrictions on internal state variables. This dis-
cussion proposed that internal state variables, which are determined by integrating
evolution equations over time, are specified to measure properties of the material
response that define the current state of the material. Moreover, since these evolu-
tion equations need initial conditions it is necessary that the values of the internal
state variables be, in principle, measurable directly or indirectly by experiments on
multiple identical samples of the material in its current material state. In this sense,
the material state must be characterized by internal state variables whose values are
measurable in the current state.
From this perspective, it is necessary to ask if the deformation measures that are
used to characterize material response are acceptable internal state variables. For
a homogeneous elastic material, it is common to define the deformation gradient
tensor F from a uniform stress-free reference configuration to the current deformed
configuration to characterize the constitutive equation of the elastic material. For
this elastic material, it follows that since the volume and shape of the material are
unique in any zero-stress material state, F is only known to within an arbitrary proper
orthogonal rotation tensor R in any zero-stress material state. This means that the
zero-stress value of F has arbitrariness due to three orientation angles associated
with R which cannot be determined by experiments on identical samples of the same
material in the current configuration. Consequently, F is not an acceptable internal
state variable in the sense discussed by Onat [13]. For this reason, F should not
1.2 Comparison of the Lagrangian and Eulerian Formulations 5

=0
C

A B

Fig. 1.4 Sketch of the deformation of a homogeneous nonlinear elastic–plastic material subjected to
homogenous proportional loading in shear from a uniform zero-stress material state A to a uniform
loaded material state B with unloading along a different path to a uniform zero-stress material state
C (dashed lines) with a different shape from that in the uniform zero-stress material state A

appear in any constitutive equation for material response, even for nonlinear elastic
materials. However, for the solution of a specific problem it is often convenient
to parameterize the solution using the total deformation gradient F from a known
specified reference configuration. In this sense, it is important to distinguish between
a tensorial measure of elastic deformation from a zero-stress material state and the
total deformation gradient from a specified reference configuration.
The use of F in constitutive equations for elastic–plastic materials is even more
problematic physically. Even if plastic deformations are isochoric, a homogeneous
elastic–plastic material that is loaded from a uniform zero-stress material state has
no unique shape in another uniform zero-stress material state (see the initial state A
and the intermediate state C in Fig. 1.4). This means that only the volumetric part of
F can be determined in a uniform zero-stress material state so there are eight degrees
of arbitrariness in F, three associated with orientation changes and five associated
with distortional deformations. The following statement by Gilman in the discussion
section in [8] refers to this physical arbitrariness.
It seems very unfortunate to me that the theory of plasticity was ever cast into the mold
of stress–strain relations because ‘strain’ in the plastic case has no physical meaning that
is related to the material of the body in question. It is rather like trying to deduce some
properties of a liquid from the shape of the container that holds it. The plastic behavior of
a body depends on its structure (crystalline and defect) and on the system of stresses that
is applied to it. The structure will vary with plastic strain, but not in a unique fashion. The
variation will also depend on the initial structure, the values of whatever stresses are applied,
and on time (some recovery occurs in almost any material at any temperature).

The Eulerian formulation of constitutive equations discussed in this book and

in [15–17] is motivated by the work of Eckart [4] for elastic–inelastic solids, by
Leonov [10] for polymeric liquids and is based on the work in [14]. This Eulerian
formulation uses evolution equations for the material time derivative of internal state
variables. More specifically, the formulation is considered to be Eulerian because
the evolution equations depend only on quantities that can, in principle, be measured
in the current state of the material. It will be shown that this Eulerian formulation
removes arbitrariness of the choice of: the reference configuration; an intermediate
configuration; a total deformation measure and an inelastic deformation measure.
6 1 Introduction

Table 1.1 Comparison of the Lagrangian (Classical) and Eulerian (Eckart) formulations
Lagrangian Eulerian
(Classical) (Eckart)
σ = Eεe σ = Eεe
ε̇ = ∂v/∂ x ε̇e = ∂v/∂ x −  εe
ε̇ p = E σ
εe = ε − ε p
σ (0)
ε(0) = ? εe (0) = E
ε p (0) = ?

Table 1.1 records the basic equations needed to compare the differences between
the Lagrangian (Classical) formulation and the Eulerian (Eckart) formulation for
inelasticity using a simple one-dimensional model. In this model the strains are
small so the notion of Lagrangian is used for quantities that are referred to a reference
configuration. Specifically, the axial stress σ is determined by the axial elastic strain
εe using Young’s modulus of elasticity E in both formulations. However, in the
Lagrangian formulation, it is necessary to define the total axial strain ε, the plastic
or inelastic axial strain ε p , as well as the axial elastic strain εe . Specifically, the total
strain ε is determined by integrating an evolution equation in terms of the velocity
gradient ∂v/∂ x. The inelastic strain ε p is determined by integrating an evolution
equation in terms of the stress σ and a non-negative function  that controls inelastic
deformation rate, and the elastic strain εe is defined by the difference between the
total strain and the inelastic strain. In contrast, in the Eulerian formulation the elastic
strain εe is determined directly by integrating an evolution equation in terms of the
velocity gradient ∂v/∂ x, the elastic strain εe and the function .
The Eulerian evolution equation for elastic strain εe is consistent with the equation
in the Lagrangian formulation and can be obtained by taking the time derivative (˙) of
the algebraic expression for εe and replacing ε̇ and ε̇ p with their evolution equations.
However, the physics of these two formulations are different. In the Lagrangian
formulation it is necessary to specify the initial values ε(0) and ε p (0). But these
quantities are both referred to an arbitrary choice of the reference configuration.
This can be made explicit by noting that the same initial value εe (0) of elastic strain
can be obtained by changing the reference configuration using the arbitrary value A,
such that
εe (0) = ε(0) − ε p (0) = [ε(0) − A] − [ε p (0) − A] , (1.2.1)

where the scalar A in this one-dimensional model characterizes the influence of the
arbitrariness of the reference configuration in a similar manner to the tensor A in the
nonlinear three-dimensional theory discussed in (5.11.24). This arbitrariness means
that the individual initial values ε(0) and ε p (0) needed to integrate the evolution
equations for ε and ε p cannot be measured independently. Consequently, ε and ε p
are not internal state variables in the sense of Onat [13].
1.2 Comparison of the Lagrangian and Eulerian Formulations 7

In contrast to the Lagrangian formulation, in the Eulerian formulation the elastic

strain εe is introduced directly through an evolution equation for its rate and the initial
value εe (0) needed to integrate this equation can be determined by the measuring
the initial value σ (0) of stress. Consequently, the elastic strain εe is an internal state
variable in the sense of Onat [13] since it is measurable. Moreover, the arbitrariness
associated with the orientation of the body in a zero-stress intermediate configuration
in the three-dimensional theory discussed in (5.11.25) cannot be analyzed using the
simple one-dimensional model.
Following the work of Eckart [4] and Leonov [10], an Eulerian formulation for
elastically isotropic inelastic materials introduces a symmetric positive-definite elas-
tic deformation tensor Be through an evolution equation for its material time deriva-
tive. Moreover, using the work of Flory [6], Be is expressed in terms of the elas-
tic dilatation Je and the symmetric positive-definite unimodular elastic distortional
deformation tensor Be defined by

Je = det Be , Be = Je−2/3 Be , det Be = 1 . (1.2.2)

Then, for elastically isotropic thermoelastic–inelastic materials evolution equations

are proposed directly for Je and Be , and the Helmholtz free energy ψ per unit mass
and the Cauchy stress T are specified by constitutive equations which depend on
Je , Be and the absolute temperature θ in the forms

ψ = ψ(Je , Be , θ ) , T = T(Je , Be , θ ) . (1.2.3)

This constitutive equation for stress is restricted to be invertible with Je and Be
admitting the representations

Je = Je (T, θ ) , Be = Be (T, θ ) . (1.2.4)

The constitutive equation for stress is further restricted so that a zero-stress material
state at zero-stress reference temperature θz requires

Je (0, θz ) = 1 , Be (0, θz ) = I , (1.2.5)

where I is the second-order identity tensor. These restrictions ensure that Je and Be
are internal state variables in the sense of Onat [13] since their initial values required
to integrate their evolution equations can be determined by the measured values of
T and θ in the initial state of the material.
Another specific example where it is clear that it is not sufficient to formulate con-
stitutive equations in terms of a Lagrangian deformation measure is an anisotropic
elastic material with a quadratic strain energy function. Specifically, let E be a
Lagrangian total strain measure from a reference configuration with a uniform
zero-stress material state and consider the quadratic strain energy function per
unit mass specified by
8 1 Introduction

1
ρz = K · E ⊗ E, (1.2.6)
2
where ρz is a constant zero-stress mass density, K is a constant fourth-order stiffness
tensor, ⊗ is the tensor product operator and ( · ) is the inner product between two
tensors of any order. Referring these tensors to an arbitrary rectangular Cartesian
orthonormal triad of vectors ei in the reference configuration yields the expression

1
ρz = K i jkl E i j E kl . (1.2.7)
2
For a general anisotropic elastic material K i jkl has the symmetries

K jikl = K i jlk = K kli j = K i jkl , (1.2.8)

so it is characterized by 21 independent material constants. Although this quadratic

strain energy function can model general anisotropic elastic response, the represen-
tation is incomplete since it is necessary to connect the components K i jkl of the
stiffnesses tensor with identifiable material directions.
Following the work in [14], the elastic deformations and material orientations in
the Eulerian formulation for elastically anisotropic materials discussed in this book
are characterized by a right-handed triad of linearly independent microstructural
vectors mi with the elastic dilatation Je defined by

Je = m1 × m2 · m3 > 0 . (1.2.9)

Also, the elastic metric m i j is defined by

m i j = mi · m j . (1.2.10)

Then, for elastically anisotropic thermoelastic–inelastic materials evolution equa-

tions are proposed directly for mi , and the Helmholtz free energy ψ per unit mass
and the Cauchy stress T are specified by constitutive equations which depend on mi
and the absolute temperature θ in the forms

ψ = ψ(m i j , θ ) , T = T(mi , θ ) . (1.2.11)

This constitutive equation for stress is restricted to be invertible with mi admitting

the representations
mi = mi (T, θ ) . (1.2.12)

The constitutive equation for stress is further restricted so that a zero-stress material
state at zero-stress reference temperature θz requires

m i j (0, θz ) = mi (0, θz ) · m j (0, θz ) = δi j , Je (0, θz ) = 1 , (1.2.13)

1.2 Comparison of the Lagrangian and Eulerian Formulations 9

where δi j is the Kronecker delta and mi have been defined to be orthonormal in

this zero-stress material state at zero-stress reference temperature. These restrictions
ensure that mi are internal state variables in the sense of Onat [13] since their initial
values required to integrate their evolution equations can be determined by the mea-
sured values of T and θ in the initial state of the material. Depending on the material
being modeled it may be necessary to consider the response of identical samples
of the material in its current state to different loading paths to determine the values
of mi in the current state. Further in this regard, it is noted that symmetries of the
material response characterized by the Helmholtz free energy ψ make the response
of the material insensitive to any indeterminacy in the inversion (1.2.12) for mi .
This representation has the advantage that the indices i = 1, 2, 3 of these vectors
characterize specific material directions. It will be shown that these microstructural
vectors can be used to model elastic deformations for anisotropic elastic materials and
for the rate-independent and rate-dependent response of anisotropic elastic–inelastic
materials.
Details of fundamental aspects of the Eulerian formulation of constitutive equa-
tions can be found in Sects. 3.11, 3.14, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.11, 5.12 and in Chap. 6 for
thermomechanical response.

References

1. Atkin RJ, Fox N (1980) An introduction to the theory of elasticity. Longman Group, Harlow
2. Bertram A (2012) Elasticity and plasticity of large deformations. Springer, Berlin
3. Besseling JF, Van Der Giessen E (1994) Mathematical modeling of inelastic deformation. CRC
Press, Boca Raton
4. Eckart C (1948) The thermodynamics of irreversible processes. IV. The theory of elasticity and
anelasticity. Phys Rev 73:373–382
5. Eringen AC (1967) Mechanics of continua. Wiley, Hoboken
6. Flory PJ (1961) Thermodynamic relations for high elastic materials. Trans Faraday Soc 57:829–
838
7. Fung YC (1967) Continuum mechanics. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River
8. Gilman JJ (1960) Physical nature of plastic flow and fracture. In: Plasticity, proceedings of 2nd
symposium on naval structural mechanics, pp 43–99
9. Holzapfel GS (2000) Nonlinear solid mechanics: a continuum approach for engineering sci-
ence. Wiley, Hoboken
10. Leonov AI (1976) Nonequilibrium thermodynamics and rheology of viscoelastic polymer
media. Rheol Acta 15:85–98
11. Malvern LE (1969) Introduction to the mechanics of a continuous medium
12. Ogden RW (1997) Non-linear elastic deformations
13. Onat ET (1968) The notion of state and its implications in thermodynamics of inelastic solids.
Irreversible aspects of continuum mechanics and transfer of physical characteristics in moving
fluids, pp 292–314
14. Rubin MB (1994) Plasticity theory formulated in terms of physically based microstructural
variables - Part I. Theory. Int J Solids Struct 31:2615–2634
10 1 Introduction

15. Rubin MB (1996) On the treatment of elastic deformation in finite elastic-viscoplastic theory.
Int J Plast 12:951–965
16. Rubin MB (2001) Physical reasons for abandoning plastic deformation measures in plasticity
and viscoplasticity theory. Arch Mech 53:519–539
17. Rubin MB (2012) Removal of unphysical arbitrariness in constitutive equations for elastically
anisotropic nonlinear elastic-viscoplastic solids. Int J Eng Sci 53:38–45
18. Tadmor EB, Ronald EM, Ryan SE (2012) Continuum mechanics and thermodynamics–from
fundamental concepts to governing equations. Cambridge University Press
Chapter 2
Basic Tensor Analysis

Abstract Tensors are mathematical objects which ensure that mathematical equa-
tions characterizing physics are insensitive to arbitrary choices of a coordinate sys-
tem. The objective of this chapter is to present a review of tensor analysis using both
index and direct notations. To simplify the presentation of tensor calculus, attention
is limited to tensors expressed relative to fixed rectangular Cartesian base vectors.
(Some of the content in this chapter has been adapted from Rubin (Cosserat theo-
ries: shells, rods and points. Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin, 2000) with
permission.)

2.1 Vector Algebra

Tensors, tensor algebra and tensor calculus are needed to formulate physical equa-
tions in continuum mechanics which are insensitive to arbitrary choices of coordi-
nates. To understand the mathematics of tensors it is desirable to start with the use
of a language called indicial notation which develops simple rules governing these
tensor manipulations. For the purposes of describing this language it is convenient to
introduce a fixed right-handed triad of orthonormal rectangular Cartesian base vec-
tors denoted by (e1 , e2 , e3 ). From the study of linear vector spaces, it is recalled that
vectors satisfy certain laws of addition and multiplication by a scalar. Specifically,
if a and b are vectors then the quantity

c =a+b (2.1.1)

is a vector defined by the parallelogram law of addition. Furthermore, recall that the
operations

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 11

M. B. Rubin, Continuum Mechanics with Eulerian Formulations of Constitutive
Equations, Solid Mechanics and Its Applications 265,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57776-6_2
12 2 Basic Tensor Analysis

a+b=b+a (commutative law) ,

(a + b) + c = a + (b + c) (associative law) ,
αa = aα (multiplicative law) ,
a·b=b·a (commutative law) ,
a · (b + c) = a · b + a · c (distributive law) , (2.1.2)
α(a · b) = (αa) · b (distributive law) ,
a × b = −b × a (lack of commutativity) ,
a × (b + c) = a × b + a × c (distributive law) ,
α(a × b) = (αa) × b (associative law)

are satisfied for all vectors a, b and c and all real numbers α, where a · b denotes
the scalar product (or dot product) and a × b denotes the vector product (or cross
product) between the vectors a and b.
The Scalar Triple Product
The scalar triple product of the vectors a, b and c has the property that the dot and
cross products can be interchanged

a ×b·c = a ·b×c. (2.1.3)

Moreover, using the results

a × b · c = −b × a · c = −b · a × c = b · c × a = c × a · b , (2.1.4)

it follows that the order of the vectors in the scalar triple product can be permuted

a×b·c = c×a·b = b×c·a. (2.1.5)

The Vector Triple Product

The vector triple product of the vectors a, b and c can be expanded to obtain

a × (b × c) = (a · c)b − (a · b)c . (2.1.6)

To prove this result it is noted that this vector must be perpendicular to both a and
b × c. But b × c is perpendicular to the plane containing b and c so the vector triple
product must be a vector in the plane of b and c. Moreover, the vector triple product is
linear in the vectors a, b and c. The expression (2.1.6) can be checked by considering
the special case of a = e1 , b = e3 and c = e1 .
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
meaning in its realities, and into the settled purpose of determining
to know what kind of a world this is in which God has cast their lot,
and soon these hard names will be only as finger-posts, directing to
certain roads on which they may journey to the end of a happy
pilgrimage. Aye, better than any old pilgrimage to a fabulous Holy
Sepulchre, will be your pilgrimage to sepulchres wrought by the hand
of Infinite Benevolence, for the creatures whom his infinite wisdom
had formed, and sustained until he pronounced the decree, “Return!”

1. CUCULLEA CARINATA.
2. CUCULLEA UMBONATA.
3. MODIOLA BIPARTITA.
4. TEREBRATULA GLOBOSA.
5. TEREBRATULA DIGONA.
6. TEREBRATULA MAXILLATA.

Before we quit the Oolite, we have one more stranger to introduce

—and in very truth he is the strangest stranger with whom we have
yet made acquaintance. We refer to the Pterodactyle.[97] The
geologist, we may suppose, has just lighted on one of these
extraordinary remnants of antiquity, say in the Stonefield Quarry,
Oxfordshire, and stands aghast as his pick lays open the fragments of
this nondescript creature.

But when the researches of science had laid bare the whole of the
fossil remains of this heterogeneous creature, when the head and
gape of the crocodile, the wing-hands of the bat, and the web-feet of
the duck were all revealed; when it was ascertained to be one of those
flying reptiles that have no existing type, and that it was “the most
extraordinary of all the beings of whose former existence the study of
fossils has made us aware,” and “the most unlike anything that exists
in the known world;” the blank wonder of the geologist gave way to
calm and admiring study, as these undreamt-of relics of the past
were made subservient to the wisdom and delight of the present.
 The following is Cuvier’s description of this strange creature,
borrowed from Ansted, vol. i, p. 418:—
“You see before you,” he says, “an animal which in all points of
bony structure, from the teeth to the extremity of the nails, presents
the well-known saurian characteristics, and of which one cannot
doubt that its integuments and soft parts, its scaly armour, and its
organs of circulation and reproduction, were likewise analogous. But
it was at the same time an animal provided with the means of flying;
and when stationary, its wings were probably folded back like those
of a bird, although, perhaps, by the claws attached to its fingers, it
might suspend itself from the branches of trees. Its usual position,
when not in motion, would be upon its hind feet, resting like a bird,
and with its neck set up and curved backwards, to prevent the weight
of the enormous head from destroying its equilibrium. Any attempt,
however, to picture this strange animal in a living state, would
appear to one who has not followed the whole argument to be rather
the production of a diseased imagination, than the necessary
completion of a sketch of which the main outlines are known to be
true. The animal was undoubtedly of the most extraordinary kind,
and would appear, if living, the strangest of all creatures. Something
approaching to it in form we may perhaps recognise in the fantastic
pictures of the Chinese; but art has, in this respect, not been able to
rival nature; and the fabled centaur, or dragon, do not present
anomalies more strange than those of the species we have been
considering.”
This description of Cuvier will recal to the reader’s mind the well-
known words of Milton (Par. Lost, Book II. line 247), in which, in his
description of an imaginary fiend, he almost realizes to the life the
animal whose extinct and fossil remains have been so recently
disinterred.
“The fiend
O’er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,
And sinks or swims, or wades or walks, or creeps or flies.”

1. PTERODACTYLE, FROM SOLENHOFEN, (one-third natural size.)

 We conclude this chapter by giving drawings of the Pterodactyle.
The first is the Pterodactyle as found at Solenhofen; the second is the
skeleton restored; and the third the animal itself, according to the
best judges of what a portrait of the Pterodactyle would be.

2. SKELETON RESTORED.

3. THE PTERODACTYLE.
 CHAPTER X.
SECONDARY ROCKS.
No. 4. The Wealden.

“The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure
therein.”—David.

Lying immediately between the oolite and the chalk, is a small

formation of fresh water, and not of marine deposit, to which the
term Wealden has been given. This name has been given to it
because it has been found developed chiefly in the Wealds, or Wolds,
[98]
of Sussex, Surrey, and Kent; and to Dr. Mantell belongs the
honour of investigating this singularly interesting formation, and of
giving us its history, after months of patient research and laborious
toil conducted on the spot, just as Hugh Miller has become the
historian and explorer of the Old Red Sandstone of Cromarty. But
although the Wealden is small when compared with the vast extent
of some other formations, previously or subsequently added to the
material of this “great globe’s” crust, it possesses unusual interest on
account of the strange organic remains that are found in it, and of
the evidence which these remains supply of vast changes in the
conditions and characters of the living beings, found at that period
roaming at large in the once tropical swamps of the Wealden.
The Wealden is almost if not wholly of fresh water origin; and a
word or two on the formation of the deltas of great rivers, now going
on in various parts of the world, will help us rightly to appreciate the
character of this formation. It is seldom, some one remarks, that we
“can catch a mountain in process of making,” and hence we have
much difficulty in arriving at definite ideas concerning the times that
the sedimentary rocks occupied in their deposit. But we can catch
deltas in the process of manufacture,—the deltas of the Nile, the
Mississippi, the Amazon, and other huge rivers that pour down, not
their “golden streams,” but their muddy accumulations, gathered
from the mountain sides whose slopes they wash into the great ocean
basin waiting to receive them. “All the rivers run into the sea, yet the
sea is not full.”
These deltas,—for we wish to explain as we go along, and would
rather fall into the error of explaining where there is no necessity,
than of leaving one word that might prove a stumbling-block
unexplained,—these deltas are all the mouths, (les embouchères,) of
oceanic rivers, that is, of rivers that pursue their impetuous course
towards their native ocean bed; and the character of these deltas
necessarily varies with the character of the coast through which they
pursue the uneven “tenor of their way.” As the level of the sea is
approached, the rapidity of the mountain stream is necessarily
checked. No longer dashing down steep mountain precipices, as it
did in the heyday of its youth, it finds itself grown into a majestic
breadth and depth; and as it nears its maternal home, leaving the
high land of its origin far behind, it traverses with slow and
measured pace the slightly descending planes by which it falls into
the ocean. This gradual process enables it to deposit on each side the
alluvial soil, and decayed vegetable matter, and so on, that have been
held by it in suspension during its rapid progress; and as the current
slackens still more as it approaches its final destiny, portions of land
gradually rise into view, the results of these deposits, which from
their triangular shape have received the name of deltas, from their
likeness to the Greek letter Δ.
Thus the mouths of the Ganges form a vast breadth of waters, with
intervening islands and strips of land, 200 miles in width. Into this
delta the river Ganges runs laden with the rich spoils of clay, sand,
vegetable matter, &c., gathered from the Himalaya Mountains, and
thus those dismal-looking islands have been formed in the mouth of
this river, that have become the home of tigers, crocodiles, &c.
In North America, that “father of waters,” the Mississippi,
sometimes called the Missouri, runs through a glorious valley of
unexhausted and inexhaustible wealth of 3,000 miles, and runs out
into the sea at least fifty miles, while its currenmiles further. “Like all
other great rivers, the Mississippi does not empty itself into the sea
in one continuous channel, but in a great variety of arms or mouths,
which intersect in sluggish streams the great alluvial delta, which is
formed by the perpetual deposit of the immense volume of water
which rolls into the ocean. Between these mouths of the river a vast
surface, half land, half water, from 50 to 100 miles in width, and 300
in length, fringes the whole coast; and there the enormous mass of
vegetable matter constantly brought down by the Mississippi is
periodically deposited. A few feet are sufficient to bring it above the
level of the water, except in great floods; and as soon as that is done,
vegetation springs up with the utmost rapidity in that prolific slime.
No spectacle can be conceived so dreary and yet so interesting, as the
prospect of these immense alluvial swamps in the course of
formation. As far as the eye can reach, over hundreds of square
leagues, nothing is to be seen but marshes bristling with roots,
trunks, and branches of trees. In winter and spring, when the floods
come down, they bring with them an incalculable quantity of these
broken fragments, technically called logs, which not only cover the
whole of this immense semi-marine territory, but, floating over it,
strew the sea for several miles off to such an extent, that ships have
often no small difficulty in making their way through them. Thus the
whole ground is formed of a vast network of masses of wood, closely
packed and rammed together to the depth of several fathoms, which
are gradually cemented by fresh deposits, till the whole acquires by
degrees a firm consistency. Aquatic birds, innumerable cranes and
storks, water serpents, and huge alligators, people this dreary
solitude. In a short time a kind of rank cane or reed springs up,
which, by retarding the flow of the river, collects the mud of the next
season, and so lends its share in the formation of the delta. Fresh
logs, fresh mud, and new crops of cane or reed, go on for a series of
years, in the course of which the alligators, in enormous multitudes,
fix in their new domain, and extensive animal remains come to
mingle with the vegetable deposits. Gradually, as the soil
accumulates and hardens, a dwarfish shrub begins to appear above
the surface; larger and larger trees succeed with the decay of their
more stunted predecessors; and at length, on the scene of former
desolation, the magnificent riches of the Louisianian forest are
reared.”[99]
To this glowing description we might add what we ourselves have
witnessed on the coast of South America, where the great Amazon,
the Orinoco, and the Essequibo, roll their mud-laden waters into the
Atlantic, and form vast accumulations of alluvial deposit all along its
northern coast; indeed, the coast line of all the Guianas of South
America, averaging some five to ten miles in width, and at least
1,000 miles in length,—Venezuela, British Guiana, Surinam, and
Cayenne,—are nothing more than the deposit formed at the base of
the mountains by these and other rivers of smaller note. Buried in
this mud are pebbles, trunks of trees, animal remains, and so on; and
if these in process of time should be elevated and afterwards
hardened, or submerged and pressed into clayey slate or sandy stone,
the fauna and the flora of these deltas would then be brought to light,
just as the leaves of plants are exhibited between the pages of a
botanist’s collecting book.
In some such method as this was once formed a delta, now
constituting the Wealden formation in our own country. What is now
the south-east of England, including the Weald clay, the Hastings
sand, and the Purbeck beds of limestone and marls, in short, the
greater part of the counties already named, with part of Dorsetshire,
was once the delta of a mighty river, that so long and so
uninterruptedly flowed through this then uninhabited part of the
planet, that its accumulated deposits average 1,000 feet in thickness.
We have but to pause over those words—one thousand feet thick;—
once mud, or rather fluviatile deposits of mud and sand, a thousand
feet thick in order to receive fresh evidence of the high antiquity of
the globe, and of the recent creation of man. We have but for a
moment to remember that these deposits consist of innumerable
layers of mollusks and crustaceans, a prodigious accumulation of the
bones of reptiles and fishes, and of the trunks, branches, and foliage
of a long extinct vegetable world, all quietly brought down by “the
rivers of waters” of that era, and carefully and without injury
deposited in what were then the bottoms of bays or the rising land of
deltas, in order to appreciate the evidence which this one deposit
alone affords of the immense period of time occupied in its
accumulation.
Our next section, the cretaceous division of the secondary rocks,
presents us with an exclusively marine deposit. The Wealden, as we
have said, is a fresh-water deposit. “Many a long and weary journey,”
says Dr. Mantell, “have I undertaken to examine the materials
thrown up from a newly-made well, or the section exposed by recent
cuttings on the roadside, in the hope of obtaining the data by which
this problem is now completely settled.” The data referred to are
such as these—the absence of all ammonites, encrinites, corals,
terebratulæ, and other marine organisms, which form so large a
portion of the cretaceous and other sea deposits.
Here, again, we may anticipate future remarks. It may be thought
—by some it has been roundly asserted—that these fossils were
placed in their present situations by the deluge. Without entering
into the theological question, as to the universality or partiality of the
Noachian flood, although, as we shall hereafter see, there is but one
opinion on that subject held by our best geologists, namely, that the
deluge recorded in the Bible was simply the subsidence or
submerging of so much of the earth, and no more, as was then
inhabited by man, and that so partial and so limited was its
character, and so brief its duration, compared with those vast
geological epochs we have been considering, that there are no traces
in nature of that event at all, i.e. that we have no one single fossil that
can be referred to that event,—without, we repeat, entering upon the
investigation of this subject, which will be done in a subsequent part
of this volume, we would merely remark, in reply to this absurd
notion, that the Wealden is evidently an alluvial, and not a diluvial
formation; and as these terms are so frequently used as if they were
synonymous, we shall venture upon our old habit of explanation. An
alluvial deposit is formed by the ordinary, but a diluvial deposit by
the extraordinary action of water. Thus all the straths and carses of
Scotland, and our English dales or dells, (may not the remote
etymology be delta?) are all of alluvial formation; while, as owing
their origin to diluvial, or the violent action of water, we are to
ascribe the heaps of rubbish, gravel, sand and boulders, that are
found in firm compact together.
Thus, if we take a basin of water holding a quantity of earthy
matter in solution, and place it on a quiet table, and allow the earthy
matter gradually to subside, that which is found at the bottom of the
basin is an alluvial formation, deposited by the quiet and ordinary
action of water.
But when, as sometimes here in Royston, a sudden and heavy rain
occurs, when for a while “the windows of heaven” seem opened, and
the surrounding hills pour down their rushing streams through the
town, filling, as unfortunately they do on such occasions, the cellars
of our neighbours in the bottom of the town, with sticks, stones, flint,
gravel, bits of chalk, paper, bones, cloth, and a variety of
intermingled sundries too numerous to mention, and all huddled
together in wild confusion, then is formed in such ill-fated cellars a
diluvial deposit, occasioned by the extraordinary action of water.
Now, the Scripture flood (and we may be allowed to say, we are not
trying to explain away the fact of the deluge,[100] nor to weaken the
strength of the Mosaic narrative, but the very contrary) was a most
extraordinary event. Not only were the “windows of heaven opened,”
but the “fountains of the great deep” were broken up, and if it had
left any traces of its action, they would have been of a heterogeneous
and diluvial character; whereas in the Wealden, as elsewhere, the
fossils occur in the most orderly and quiet manner, preserving in
many cases those exquisite forms of beauty which distinguished
them during life.
Without entering more fully into details of the fossil remains of
this period, we shall conclude this chapter by a reference to one of
the vast saurians whose remains have been disinterred from the
Wealden. Many years ago Dr. Mantell discovered, in a quarry at
Cuckfield in Sussex, a tooth, which he took up to the Geological
Society of London; it was altogether unlike any tooth he had hitherto
found, but yet it was so common, that the quarrymen had broken
many of them up to mend the roads. The most eminent geologists of
the day were puzzled extremely with this tooth. One thought it
belonged to a fish; another, that it belonged to an unknown
herbivorous mammal; and a third, who was right, that it belonged to
a herbivorous reptile. Sir Charles Lyell was at that time about to visit
Paris, and the tooth, and that alone, was shown to Cuvier, who at
once pronounced it to be the tooth of a rhinoceros. In the process of
time other fossil remains were found, portions of jaws, cervical,
dorsal, and caudal vertebræ; and on Cuvier seeing these, with the
magnanimity of a truly great mind, he frankly avowed his error, and
said, “I am entirely convinced of my error in pronouncing it to be the
tooth of a rhinoceros.” Shortly after, Dr. Mantell was fortunate
enough to procure the skeleton of an iguana,[101] and he found that
the fossil teeth found in Tilgate forest bore a close resemblance to the
teeth of the iguana. The teeth of the iguana were found to be small,
closely set, and serrated like the edge of a saw, not so much for
crushing victims, as for champing and grinding its vegetable food;
this corresponded precisely with the fossil teeth found, and after long
and careful deliberation, the name given to this crocodile lizard, and
the name which it retains, was Iguanodon, or the reptile with teeth
like the iguana.
The probable size of the Iguanodon was thirty feet in length,
though probably some exceeded these enormous proportions.
Seventy species have been discovered in the quarries opened at
Tilgate forest; and this gives us some idea of the conspicuous part
these mighty creatures once played in the eras happily before man
was an inhabitant of this planet. Why these remains should generally
be found in the same locality we cannot certainly tell, though the
previous extract from Alison may shed some light on this curious
fact; but it appears beyond doubt that particular spots were selected
by these beasts as hospitals and dying places, where, undisturbed by
their enemies, they retired to die unseen.
The drawing on page 195, representing the restored fauna of this
period, that is, inclusive of the Lias, Oolite, and Wealden formations,
will not only illustrate our previous remarks, but enable our readers
thoroughly to appreciate the following vivid description of the life of
that remote era, which we do not like to abridge. Should any feel
sceptical as to whether there were ever such “goings on” in this globe
of ours, especially in our eastern counties, now the resort of tourists
and invalids having no dread of such creatures before their eyes, we
ask them not to reject all this as fable until they have gone to the
British Museum, and in Room 3, and in Wall-case C, they will there
see some of the magnificent specimens, obtained by Dr. Mantell, of
these extinct deinosaurians.[102] On reading this description, it seems
quite justifiable to congratulate ourselves upon the era in which we
live. Strange forms and monsters vast have been in the old time
before us, and their disinterred remains teach us again and again the
good and wholesome lesson of the king of Israel, prefixed as a motto
to this chapter.
“Two of these saurians have more especially attracted attention, in
consequence of their great abundance in a fossil state in our own
country, but they are by no means the only ones known. Of these
two, one was more exclusively a tenant of the deep, while the other
was probably more frequently met with on the mud banks or on the
shore. Both were truly marine in their habits, and both seem to have
served as the representatives of the great Cetacean tribe—the whales,
the porpoises, and other similar animals now existing.
“It is not easy to imagine the conditions of existence of such
animals. We know their form, their proportions, their strange
contrivances of structure, their very skin, and the nature of the food
which they devoured; and yet, knowing with absolute certainty these
points, we hardly dare draw the conclusions which are suggested. I
will, however, venture to offer a sketch of the appearance of the sea
and its inhabitants during this portion of the Reptilian epoch.
“There were then, perhaps, existing on or near the land, some of
those reptiles which I shall describe in the next chapter; and with
them were associated true crocodilians, not much unlike the fresh
water gavial inhabiting the Ganges. These, also, might occasionally
swim out to sea, and be found in the neighbouring shoals.
“But these shoals were alive with myriads of invertebrated
animals; and crowds of sharks hovered about, feeding upon the
larger tribes. There were also numerous other animals, belonging to
those remarkable groups which I have attempted to describe in some
detail. Imagine one of these monstrous animals, a plesiosaurus, some
sixteen or twenty feet long, with a small wedge-shaped crocodilian
head, a long, arched, serpent-like neck, a short compact body,
provided with four large and powerful paddles, almost developed
into hands; an animal not covered with brilliant scales, but with a
black slimy skin. Imagine for a moment this creature slowly
emerging from the muddy banks, and, half walking, half creeping
along, making its way towards the nearest water. Arrived at the
water, we can understand from its structure that it was liable to
exhibit greater energy. Unlike the crocodile tribe, however, in all its
proportions, it must have been equally dissimilar in habit. Perhaps,
instead of concealing itself in mud or among rushes, it would swim at
once boldly and directly to the attack. Its enormous neck stretched
out to its full length, and its tail acting as a rudder, the powerful and
frequent strokes of its four large paddles would at once give it an
impulse, sending it through the water at a very rapid rate. When
within reach of its prey, we may almost fancy that we see it drawing
back its long neck as it depressed its body in the water, until the
strength of the muscular apparatus with which this neck was
provided, and the great additional impetus given by the rapid
advance of the animal, would combine to produce a stroke from the
pointed head which few living animals could resist. The fishes,
including perhaps even the sharks, the larger cuttle-fish, and
innumerable inhabitants of the sea, would fall an easy prey to this
monster.
“But now let us see what goes on in the deeper abysses of the
ocean, where a free space is given for the operations of that fiercely
carnivorous marine reptile, the ichthyosaurus. Prowling about at a
great depth, where the reptilian structure of its lungs, and the bony
apparatus of the ribs would allow it to remain for a long time without
coming to the air to breathe, we may fancy we see this strange
animal, with its enormous eyes directed upwards, and glaring like
globes of fire. Its length is some thirty or forty feet, its head being six
or eight feet long; and it has paddles and a tail like a shark; its whole
energies are fixed on what is going on above, where the plesiosaurus
or some giant shark is seen devouring its prey. Suddenly striking
with its short but compact paddles, and obtaining a powerful
impetus by flapping its large tail, the monster darts through the
water at a rate which the eye can scarcely follow towards the surface.
The vast jaws, lined with formidable rows of teeth, soon open wide to
their full extent; the object of attack is approached—is overtaken.
With a motion quicker than thought the jaws are snapped together,
and the work is done. The monster, becoming gorged, floats
languidly near the surface, with a portion of the top of its head and
its nostrils visible, like an island covered with black mud, above the
water.
 FAUNA OF THE OOLITIC PERIOD, RESTORED.

“But a description of such scenes of carnage, enacted at former

periods of the earth’s history, may perhaps induce some of my
readers to question the wisdom that permitted them, and conclude
rashly that they are opposed to the ideas which we are encouraged to
form of the goodness of that Being, the necessary action of whose
laws, enforced on all living beings, gives rise to them. By no means,
however, is this the case. These very results are perfectly compatible
with the greatest wisdom and goodness and even according to our
limited views of the course of nature, they may be shown not to
involve any needless suffering. To us men, constituted as we are, and
looking upon death as a punishment which must be endured,
premature and violent destruction seems to involve unnecessary
pain. But such is not the law of nature as it relates to animal life in
general. The very exuberance and abundance of life is at once
obtained and kept within proper bounds by this rapacity of some
great tribes. A lingering death—a natural decay of those powers
which alone enable the animal to enjoy life—would, on the contrary,
be a most miserable arrangement for beings not endowed with
reason, and not assisting each other. It would be cruelty, because it
would involve great and hopeless suffering. Death by violence is to all
unreasoning animals the easiest death, for it is the most
instantaneous; and therefore, no doubt, it has been ordained that
throughout large classes there should be an almost indefinite rate of
increase, accompanied by destruction rapid and complete in a
corresponding degree, since in this way the greatest amount of
happiness is ensured, and the pain of misery and slow decay of the
vital powers prevented. All nature, both living and extinct, abounds
with facts proving the truth of this view; and it would be as
unreasonable to doubt the wisdom and goodness of this
arrangement, as it would be to call in question the mutual adaptation
of each part in the great scheme of creation. No one who examines
nature for himself, however superficially, can doubt the latter; and
no one certainly, who duly considers the laws ordained for the
general government of the world, can believe it possible for these
laws to have acted without a system of compensation, according to
which the vital energies of one tribe serve to prepare food for the
development of higher powers in another.”[103]
 CHAPTER XI.
SECONDARY ROCKS.
No. 5. The Chalk.
THE CRETACEOUS SYSTEM.

“His hands formed the dry land.”—David.

At the conclusion of the Wealden period, the crust of our globe

underwent another great change. The fresh-water rocks we have just
been studying were probably submerged by some violent
subterranean or subaquean agency, and upon a great part of them a
new deposit was gradually formed. Foot by foot, and inch by inch,
slowly accumulated those cretaceous particles (Lat. creta, chalk)
which now constitute the chalk hills and cliffs of our own country, to
say nothing of the extent of territory in Europe occupied by this well-
known mineral. To those who like ourselves live in a chalk district,
this formation possesses special interest, simply because the “bounds
of our habitation” are fixed there; and though we miss here all traces
of the Ichthyosaurus and Iguanodon, although no Deinotherium nor
Mastodon as yet make their appearance on the stage of being, yet
with a very little knowledge of geology, coupled with a desire not to
walk through the world with “eyes and no eyes,” it is in our power to
invest many an otherwise motiveless walk with pleasurable interest.
A cutting in the hills may reveal some unthought-of geological
curiosity; a heap of flints may disclose some “rich and rare” fossils;
and even a walk over the Downs, those breezy “downs” or “heaths” of
southern England, covered with their short herbage, and dotted with
their browsing sheep—those downs that undulate in such well-
known forms of beauty, may be fruitful of suggestions concerning
their origin, character and antiquity, that may be of healthful power
in the development of an intellectual life.
We live—that is, we aforesaid—not on a fresh-water deposit, like
the people of Purbeck, Hastings, and so on, but upon an old marine
deposit. The huge cliffs of chalk that gave the name of Albion, the
“white isle,” to our country, with all these downs, which rest upon
chalk, having a depth or thickness of often more than two thousand
feet, were once formed at the bottom of pre-Adamite oceans; and in
process of time, as the secondary period drew near to its destined
close, and other and higher types of life were to make their
appearance, were upheaved by Him, “whose hands thus formed the
dry land,” to serve the future purposes and contribute to the
comforts of the coming lord of all.
Of this Albion we may well be proud, as the home of religion, the
birth-place of true freedom, and the sanctuary of the oppressed.
With Coleridge we exclaim:—
“Not yet enslaved, nor wholly vile,
O Albion, O my mother isle!
Thy valleys fair, as Eden’s bowers,
Glitter green with sunny showers;
Thy grassy upland’s gentle swells
Echo to the bleat of flocks;
Those grassy hills, those glittering dells,
Proudly ramparted with rocks;
And Ocean, ’mid his uproar wild,
Speaks safety to his island-child.
Hence for many a fearless age
Has social quiet loved thy shore;
Nor ever proud invader’s rage
Or sack’d thy towers or stain’d thy fields with gore.”

If we were to tell the story of the Chalk formation, it would run

something after this fashion:—Once upon a time—but what time we
don’t know, for man’s records only go back a few thousand years; but
long, long ages before there was a man to till the earth—all this chalk
lay out of sight at the deep bottom of the old, old sea. The tall cliffs at
Dover, which Shakspeare would hardly recognise now with their
tunnels and railroads, the wavy downs of Sussex and Surrey, the
chalk hills of Hampshire, all that piece of Wiltshire called Salisbury
Plain, and this line of country stretching away north to bluff
Flamborough Head, and running down south to Weymouth and the
isle of Purbeck, taking up in its course a good part of
Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk,—all
this immense district, averaging probably a thousand feet in
thickness, lay quietly at the bottom of the sea. Yes! it wasn’t created
just pat in a moment, and set up in these hills and valleys, any more
than sand was created sand, but gradually, grain by grain, it
accumulated, ages rolling by while thus the earth was a-preparing.
These undulating downs knew then no boys pursuing on them their
healthful and gymnastic games; no fair riders then crossed these
pleasant turfy swards, inhaling life and vigour from the air of heaven;
no evening promenades for men of business, recreating the
overworked physical nature,—then diversified the scene: but instead
thereof crumbling particles of older rocks covered the floor of the
ocean with their dust, so making green sand, while the waste and
débris of coral reefs, ground up and pulverized, poured in their lavish
contributions, so making chalk; (?) while above this deposit thus
forming, the ocean waves rolled to and fro, and in their rise and fall,
their daily ebb and flow, sounded their eternal bass in the ear of old
father Time, who certainly then had no human children. Had we
been there we should have seen as tenants of the “vasty deep,”
pectens, plagiostamas, hamites, belemnites, and other odd-looking
crustaceans, roaming about at their own sweet will; some ganoid
fishes that have now such hard names, that to write them would
interfere with the strain of this description; while here and there we
might have spied a veteran remnant of the oolite come down by
strange chance into the chalk, a solitary pterodactyle, snapped at and
pounced upon by an ugly mososaurus, a sea crocodile standing four
feet high. These, and such as these, were the tenants of that ocean,
which then rolled over our heaths and downs; and when at length
their period of life and purpose of creation were answered, these too
all perished, and the secondary formation ended its wondrous career.
The old ocean still rolls on, unchanged, unaltered still; but what
changes has it seen in these long distant epochs of which geology
tries to tell the story!
“Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow;
Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now!”
 No one can write the history of the Chalk formation, without
remembering his indebtedness to the patient and laborious toil of
Dr. Mantell in this department, from whose “Geological Excursions
round the Isle of Wight,”[104] we give the following extract. “The
features of a chalk district are so well known, that a brief notice will
render local details unnecessary. The rounded summits of the hills,
covered with short verdant turf—the smooth undulated outline of the
downs unbroken, save by the sepulchral mounds of the early
inhabitants of the country—the coombes and furrows ramifying and
extending into the deep valleys, which abruptly terminate at the base
of the hills, and appear like dried-up channels of rivulets and
streams, though free from all traces of alluvial débris, thus bearing
the impress of physical operations, of which the agents that produced
them have long since passed away—are phenomena familiar to every
one who has travelled over the downs of the south-east of England,
and are displayed in the chalk districts of the ‘beautiful isle.’ These
features are restricted to the hilly districts of the white chalk, and
have resulted from the peculiar nature of the sedimentary detritus,
[105]
of which the strata comprised in the upper division of the
Cretaceous system are composed: for in the lower groups, clays,
marls, sands, and sandstones prevail; and where these deposits
approach the surface, and form the subsoil, the country is broken
and diversified, and the landscape presents a striking contrast with
the down scenery, as may be observed in the picturesque district
which flanks the escarpment of the chalk hills. It may, perhaps, be
necessary to remind the unscientific reader, that these strata are but
an insulated portion of an ancient sea-bottom, or in other words, a
mass of consolidated sediments formed in the profound depths of
the ocean, in a very remote period of the earth’s physical history.
This detritus is made up of inorganic and organic materials. The
former consist of the débris of the cliffs and shores which
encompassed the ancient sea, of the spoils of islands and continents
brought down into the ocean by fresh-water currents, and of
chemical deposits thrown down from mineral solutions. The organic
substances are the durable remains of animals and plants which
lived and died in the ocean, and of fluviatile and terrestrial species
that were transported from the land by rivers and their tributaries;
the whole forming such an assemblage of sedimentary deposits as
would probably be presented to observation, if a mass of the bed of