Of the _three_ general postulates or _a priori_ assumptions of this
curiously out-of-date mediæval science, namely, (1) Uniformity, (2) the
Cooling globe theory, and (3) the theory of the Successive Ages, the
first two have already been examined and found wanting by other
investigators, and have been allowed to lapse into a sort of honored
disuse, though their memory is still reverently cherished in all the
text-books of the science. The "Challenger" Expedition dissipated most
of the myths that had long been taught regarding the deep waters of the
ocean; and Professor Suess has disposed of the closely related myth
about the coasts of the continents being constantly on the seesaw up and
down. These two discoveries, with others that might be mentioned,
dispose of Lyell's theory of uniformity. Lord Kelvin and the other
physicists dissipated the idea of a molten interior of the earth. Hence,
because these other false hypotheses have already in a measure been
disposed of, as well as for the sake of brevity, I shall here discuss
only the _third_ of the prime postulates of the current system of
geology, namely the theory of Successive Ages. And when we have adjusted
this aspect of the science of geology to the facts of the rocks as made
known to us by modern discoveries, we shall find little in this science
out of harmony with the older view of a literal Creation as taught in
the Bible and as already confirmed by the other branches of science
which we have been examining.
There are _five_ leading arguments against the reality of these
successive ages. Four of them must be dismissed here by a brief summary
of the facts as we know them to-day, referring the reader to the
author's larger work, where detailed evidence is given for each. The
_fifth_ series of facts I shall give here in more detail, though of
course even this must be but an outline of what is given elsewhere.
1. In the earlier days of the theory of successive ages it was taught
that only certain kinds of fossils were to be found _at the bottom_ of
the series, or next to the Primitive or Archæan. This feature of the
theory was demanded by the supposed universal spread of one type of life
all around the globe in the earliest age. But it is now known that the
so-called "oldest" fossiliferous rocks occur only in detached patches
over the globe, while other or "younger" kinds are just as likely to be
found on the Primitive or next to the Archæan. Not only may any kind of
fossiliferous rocks occur next to the Archæan, but even the "youngest"
may be so metamorphosed and crystalline as to resemble exactly in this
respect the so-called "oldest" rocks. On the other hand some of the very
"oldest" rocks may, like the Cambrian strata around the Baltic and in
some parts of the United States, consist of "muds scarcely indurated and
sands still incoherent."[40]
[Footnote 40: J.A. Howe; Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. II, p. 86.
Cambridge Edition.]
All this means that many facts regarding the _position_ of the strata as
well as regarding their _consolidation_ contradict the theory of
successive ages.
2. Many of the rivers of the world completely ignore the alleged varying
ages of the rocks in the different parts of their course, and treat them
all as if of the same age or as if they began sawing at them all at the
same time. This is true of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Danube in
Europe, the Sutlej of India, and the upper part of the Colorado in
America, not to mention others. The old strand lines around all the
continents act in the very same way, ignoring the varying ages of the
rocks they happen to meet; as is also true of nearly all the great
faults or fissures which are of more than local extent. The ore veins of
the various minerals are about as likely to be found in Tertiary or
Mesozoic as in the Palæozoic. A very similar lesson is to be learned
from the fossils found lying exposed on the deep ocean bottom; for they
are about as likely to be Palæozoic or Mesozoic as Tertiary.
From these facts we conclude that practically all the great natural
chronometers of the earth seem to treat the fossiliferous rocks as if
they are _all of about the same age_, completely disregarding the
distinctions in age founded on the fossils.
3. According to the present chronological arrangement of the rocks, very
many genera, often whole tribes of animals, are found as fossils only in
the oldest rocks, and _have skipped all the others_, though found in
comparative abundance in our modern world. Very many others have skipped
from the Mesozoic down, while still others skip large _parts_ of the
series of successive ages.
These absurdities would all be avoided by acknowledging that the current
distinctions as to the ages of the fossils are purely artificial, and
that one fossil is intrinsically just as old or as young as another.
4. It is now known that any kind of "young" beds whatsoever, Mesozoic,
Tertiary, or even Pleistocene, may be found in such _perfect
conformability_ on some of the very oldest beds over wide stretches of
country that "the vast interval of time intervening is unrepresented
either by deposition or erosion"; while in some instances these
age-separated formations so closely resemble one another in structure
and in mineralogical make-up that, "were it not for fossil evidence, one
would naturally suppose that a single formation was being dealt with"
(McConnell); and these conditions are "not merely local, but persistent
over wide areas" (A. Geikie), so that the "numerous examples" (Suess) of
these conditions "may well be cause for astonishment" (Suess).
A still more astonishing thing from the standpoint of the current
theories is that these conformable relations of incongruous strata are
often _repeated over and over again in the same vertical section_, the
same kind of bed reappearing alternately with others of an entirely
different "age," that is, appearing "as if _regularly interbedded"_ (A.
Geikie) with them, in a manifestly undisturbed series of strata.
Here again we have a very formidable series of facts whose gravamen is
directed wholly against the artificial distinctions in age between the
different groups of fossils; and their argument is an eloquent plea that
the fossils are neither older nor younger but all of a similar age.
5. Our last fact demands a somewhat more extended consideration; but it
may be stated in advance briefly as follows:
In very numerous cases and over hundreds and even thousands of square
miles, the conformable conditions specified in the previous fact are
exactly reproduced _upside down_; that is, very "old" rocks occur with
just as much appearance of natural conformability on top of very "young"
rocks, the area in some instances covering many hundreds of square
miles, and in one particular instance in Montana and Alberta covering
about five or six thousand square miles of area.
The first notable example of this phenomenon was discovered at Glarus,
Switzerland, a good many years ago; since which time this locality has
become a classic in geological literature, and has called out many
ponderous monographs in German and French by such men as Heim, Schardt,
Lugeon, Rothpletz, and Bertrand. This example, which was first (1870)
called the Glarner Double Fold by Escher and Heim, is now universally
called a nearly flat-lying "thrust fault," in accordance with the
explanations since adopted of similar phenomena elsewhere. Without
obtruding unnecessary technicalities upon my non-professional readers, I
may quote the words of Albert Heim as to the conditions as now
recognized in these parts:
"These flat-lying faults, of which those at Glarus were the first to be
discovered, _are a universal_ _phenomenon_ in the Northern and Central
Alps."[41]
[Footnote 41: "Der Bau der Schweizeralpen," p. 17.]
The favorite method of explaining these conditions has slightly changed
within recent years, as already remarked. For whereas the classic
example at Glarus was at first spoken of as a double fold-in from both
sides toward the Sernf Valley, this is now universally spoken of as a
"thrust fault," with the rocks all pushed one way. Incidentally it may
be noted that this very fact that what was long regarded as two
completely overturned folds is now spoken of as one flat-lying thrust
fault, is _prima facie_ evidence that there is here _no physical proof_
of any real overturning of the strata, such as we do find on a very
small scale in true folded rocks. The latter can usually be measured in
yards, feet, or inches; while in this example at Glarus the area
involved would be measured in many miles, and in some very similar
examples to be presently mentioned from America the measurement could
best be made in degrees of latitude and longitude or in arcs of the
earth's circumference. In these larger examples it is manifestly
impossible that there should be any physical evidence sufficient to
indicate a huge earth movement of this character, especially when, as is
usually the case, both the upper and the lower strata are _quite
uninjured in appearance_. No; the fossils are here in the wrong order,
that is all. And so, to save the long established doctrines of a very
definite order of successive life-forms, this theory of a "thrust fault"
is offered as the best available explanation. As Dr. Albert Heim himself
once expressed it very naively in a letter to the present writer, that
the strata over these large areas are in a position manifestly at direct
disagreement with the received order of the fossils, "is a fact which
can be clearly seen,--only we know not yet how to explain it in a
mechanical way."
An example in the Highlands of Scotland was about the next to be
discovered. Here, as Dana says, "a mass of the oldest crystalline rocks,
many miles in length from north to south, was thrust at least ten miles
westward over younger rocks, part of the latter fossiliferous;" and he
further declares, "the thrust planes _look like planes of bedding, and
were long so considered._"[42]
Sir Archibald Geikie and others had at first described these beds as
naturally conformable; and when at length they were convinced that the
fossils would not permit this explanation, Geikie gives us some very
picturesque details as to how natural they look.
The thrust planes, he says, are with much difficulty distinguished "from
ordinary stratification planes, like which they have been plicated,
faulted, and denuded. Here and there, as a result of denudation, a
portion of one of them appears capping a hilltop. One almost refuses to
believe that the little outlier on the summit does not lie normally on
the rocks below it, but on a nearly horizontal fault by which it has
been moved into its place."
Of a similar example in Ross Shire he declares:
"Had these sections been planned for the purpose of deception, they
could not have been more skilfully devised, ... and no one coming first
to the ground would suspect that what appears to be a normal
stratigraphical sequence is not really so."[43]
[Footnote 42: "Manual," pp. 111, 534.]
[Footnote 43: _Nature_, November 13, 1884, pp. 29-35.]
Here again we have unequivocal testimony from the most competent of
observers that there is _no physical evidence whatever_ to lead any one
to say that a ponderous scale of the earth's crust was really pushed up
on top of other portions, as this makeshift theory of "thrust faults"
involves. The _fossils are here in the wrong order_, just as in the case
at Glarus; that is all. The facts seem to be a flat contradiction to the
theory of definite successive ages, and to save the theory this
explanation of a "thrust fault" is invented, though there is absolutely
no physical evidence of any disturbance of the strata.
Our next stopping place is in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of
eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia. Here we have the Carboniferous
strata dipping gently to the southeast, like an ordinary low monocline,
_under_ Cambrian or Lower Silurian, one of these so-called faults having
a reported length of 375 miles,[44] while in another instance the upper
strata are said to have been pushed about eleven miles in the direction
of the "thrust."[45] These conditions, we are told, "have provoked the
wonder of the most experienced geologists,"[46] because of the perfectly
natural appearance of the surfaces of the strata affected; or as this
same writer puts it, "The mechanical effort is great beyond
comprehension, but the effect upon the rocks is inappreciable," and "the
fault dip is often parallel to the bedding of the one or the other
series of strata."[47] Which means, in other words, that these "thrust
planes" _look just like ordinary planes of bedding between conformable
strata_.
[Footnote 44: Bailey Willis, Geol. Survey, Report, Vol. 13, p. 228.]
[Footnote 45: C.W. Hayes, _Bull. Geol. Soc_., Vol. 2, pp. 141-154.]
[Footnote 46: Willis, _op. cit_., p. 228.]
[Footnote 47: Willis, _op. cit_., p. 227.]
The Rocky Mountains furnish examples of many kinds of natural phenomena
on the very largest scale, and those of the sort here under
consideration are no exception to this rule. For here we have an immense
area east of the main divide, extending from the middle of Montana up to
the Yellowhead Pass in Alberta, or over 350 miles long, where the tops
of the mountains consist of jointed limestones or argillites of
Algonkian or pre-Cambrian "age," resting on soft Cretaceous shales.
Often the greater part of the mass of a range will consist of these
"older" and harder rocks, which by the erosion of the soft underlying
shales are left standing in picturesque, rectangular, cathedral-like
masses, easily recognizable as far off as they can be seen. And the
almost entire absence of trees or other vegetation helps one to trace
out the relationship of these formations over immense areas with little
or no difficulty.
In the latitude of the Bow River, near the Canadian Pacific main line,
there is a long narrow valley of these Cretaceous beds some sixty-five
miles long, called the Cascade Trough, with of course pre-Cambrian
mountains on each side. Somewhat further south there are two of these
Cretaceous valleys parallel to one another, and in some places _three_;
while just south of the fiftieth parallel of latitude, at Gould's Dome,
there are actually _five parallel ranges_ of these Palæozoic mountains,
_with four Cretaceous valleys in between_, one of these valleys, the
Crow's Nest Trough, being ninety-five miles long.
But we ought to take a nearer view of these wonderful conditions. A
convenient point of approach will be just east of Banff, Alberta, near
Kananaskis Station, where the Fairholme Mountain has been described by
R.G. McConnell of the Canadian Survey. The latter remarks with amazement
on the perfectly natural appearance of these Algonkian limestones
resting in seeming conformability on Cretaceous shales, and says that
the line of separation between them, called in the theory the "thrust
plane," resembles in all respects an ordinary stratification plane. I
quote his language:
"The angle of inclination of its plane to the horizon is _very low_, and
in consequence of this its outcrop follows a very sinuous line along the
base of the mountains, and _acts exactly like the line of contact of two
nearly horizontal formations_.
"The best places for examining this fault are at the gaps of the Bow and
of the south fork of Ghost River.... The fault plane here is nearly
horizontal, and the two formations, viewed from the valley, _appear to
succeed one another conformably."[48]
[Footnote 48: Annual Report, 1886, Part D, pp. 33, 34.]
This author adds the further interesting detail that the underlying
Cretaceous shales are "very soft," and "have suffered very little by the
sliding of the limestone over them."[49]
About a hundred miles further south, but still in Alberta, we have the
well-known Crow's Nest Mountain, a lone peak, which consists of these
same Algonkian limestones resting on a Cretaceous valley "in a nearly
horizontal attitude," as G.M. Dawson says, which "in its structure and
general appearance much resembles Chief Mountain,"[50] another detached
peak some fifty miles further south, just across the boundary line in
Montana.
Chief Mountain has been well described by Bailey Willis,[51] who
estimates that the Cretaceous beds underneath this mountain must be
3,500 feet thick; while the so-called "thrust plane is essentially
_parallel to the bedding_" of the upper series.[52]
"This apparently is true not only of the segments of thrust surface
beneath eastern Flattop, Yellow, and Chief Mountain, but also of the
more deeply buried portions which appear to dip with the Algonkian
strata into the syncline. While observation is not complete, it may be
assumed on a basis of fact that thrust surfaces and bedding are nearly
parallel over extensive areas."[53]
[Footnote 49: Report, 1886, Part D, p. 84.]
[Footnote 50: Report, 1885, Part B, p. 67.]
[Footnote 51: _Bull. Geol. Soc._, Vol. 13, pp. 305-352.]
[Footnote 52: _Id_., p. 336.]
[Footnote 53: _Id_., p. 336.]
Quite recently this region has been studied by Marius R. Campbell of the
Washington Survey Staff (Bulletin 600), while the part in Alberta has
been studied by Rollin T. Chamberlin of Chicago. Much of the vast area
involved is not yet well explored; but over it all, so far as it has
been fully examined, the same lithological and stratigraphical
structures reappear with the persistence of a repeating decimal. And
were it not for the exigencies of the theory of Successive Ages, this
whole region of some five or six thousand square miles would be
considered as only an ordinary example, on a rather large scale, of
undisturbed horizontal stratification cut up by erosion into mountains
of denudation, with of course occasional instances of minor local
disturbances here and there, as would be expected over an area of this
extent.
Richards and Mansfield in a recent paper describe the "Bannock
Overthrust," some 270 miles long, in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. The
Carnegie Research recently reported a similar phenomenon about 500 miles
long in northern China.
But it would be tiresome to follow these conditions around the world. We
have plenty of examples, and we have them described by the foremost of
living geologists. What we need to do now is to adopt a true scientific
attitude of mind, a mind freed from the hypnotizing influence of the
current theories, in order correctly to interpret the facts as we
already have them.
_How much of the earth's crust would we have to find_ in this upside
down order of the fossils, before we would be convinced that there must
be something hopelessly wrong with this theory of Successive Ages which
drives otherwise competent observers to throw away their common sense
and cling desperately to a fantastic theory in the very teeth of such
facts?
The science of geology as commonly taught is truly in a most astonishing
condition, and doubtless presents the most peculiar mixture of fact and
nonsense to be found in the whole range of our modern knowledge. In any
minute study of a particular set of rocks in a definite locality,
geology always follows facts and common sense; while in any general view
of the world as a whole, or in any correlation of the rocks of one
region with those of another region, it follows its absurd, unscientific
theories. But wherever it agrees with facts and common sense, it
contradicts these absurd theories; and wherever it agrees with these
theories, it contradicts facts and common sense. That most educated
people still believe its main thesis of _a definite age for each
particular kind of fossil_ is a sad but instructive example of the
effects of mental inertia.