From the days of Homer until the present time we read of dust-storms of
living organisms falling upon the earth, and colored snow, the coloring
matter being microscopic forms of life. The dust is doubtless of cosmic
origin. There must be micro-cosmic clouds moving in interplanetary
space, which meeting the earth in its path, are precipitated upon its
surface.
We can scarcely conceive of matter anywhere without associating it with
living forms. The outermost vapors of the annular system, which fell
in the time of Noah, remained on high for unknown millions of years,
receiving constant additions of meteoric and cosmic dust from without.
As the gaseous envelope that now surrounds our earth contains living
organisms, we must believe the annular matter did also, and to a much
greater degree.
If Jupiter’s belted system had long ago descended to the body of that
planet, so that we could gaze upon the continents and seas as we do
those of Mars, we would conclude that they swarmed with life. An
incomplete world must contain incomplete or primordial life-forms;
forms that in time must develop. In yellow snow, dust showers,
“blood rains,” etc. we have evidence that organic forms are natural
accompaniments of the nebulous and elementary forms of matter.
Spider showers are well authenticated. Sometimes the air is filled
with their gossamer threads upon which they mount to unknown depths of
space, where they live. If spiders can live in the air, descend to the
earth and live there for a time, and toads can live for untold ages
immured in solid rock, they could live in belts of aqueous and mineral
matter. The manner in which organisms have succeeded each other on the
earth as revealed by the geologic records demands that the annular
system was the cradle of infant life, the propagating beds in which
the life-germs were placed by the great Gardener of Nature.
It is as reasonable to suppose that germs took form in water under the
creative hand before they fell to the earth as afterward, and when we
see that each downfall brought new life-forms which exhibit no specific
or generic relation to previous forms, we are forced to admit that
either the seed beds of the Annular system provided the undeveloped
organisms, or there was a special creation at each period.
In the Silurian age there was an ocean containing heavy calcarious
matter; in the Devonian silicious and silicio-calcarious matter;
in the Carboniferous carbonaceous matter, and each ocean had its
characteristic life-forms. But if all the waters fell at one time,
how is it possible for each age to have had an ocean containing
characteristic minerals? These characteristic minerals fell with each
ring, which marked the ages of geology, destroying previous life-forms
and introducing new ones. Eozoic rocks were laid down 40,000 feet
thick. Upon these were piled Silurian 65,000 feet thick; on these
Devonian rocks 15,000 feet, and then comes 17,000 feet of Carboniferous
rocks, each age having characteristic fossils and mineral deposits. As
these deposits were laid down by the sea, why do they so widely differ
in their composition if they all fell at the same time from above! The
Potsdam sandstone underlies the Silurian rocks. It spread from the
Canadas to Texas, from the Alleghanies to the Rocky mountains, and
probably forms a casement around the globe. It is 8,000 feet thick, and
shows a mechanical and rapid accumulation, pointing unmistakably to
the downfall of a silicious ring.
The Annular theory admits of the universal eroding power of rivers and
waves; the transporting power of currents and strata building from
detrital matter. But waves can do nothing unless supplied with matter.
Where did they get the crystalline, granulated and infusorial matter to
spread over the floor of the Silurian ocean? Great beds of metals have
been laid down as regularity stratified deposits which could not have
been borne from Archaean terranes.