FACT NUMBER TWO
If we had ample evidence that a certain man was personally acquainted
with Julius Caesar, that they were born in the same town, went to school
together, served in the same wars, and later carried on an extensive
mutual correspondence, would we not conclude that they must have lived
in the same age of the world's history? I confess that the conclusion
seems quite unavoidable. Who would dream that eighteen centuries or more
had separated the two lives, and that while one was an old Roman the
other was an American of the latter nineteenth century?
Some such a puzzle as this is presented in geology under the general
subject of =conformability=. Let me define this term.
Strata laid down by water are in the first place in a horizontal
position. Some subsequent force may have disturbed them, so that we may
now find them standing up on edge like books in a library. But all human
experience goes to show that they were not deposited in this position.
Some disturbing cause must have taken hold of them since they were laid
down, for the water in which they were made must have spread them out
smooth and horizontal, each subsequent layer or stratum fitting "like a
glove" on the preceding. Thus when we find two successive layers
agreeing with one another in their planes of bedding, with every
indication that the lower one was not disturbed in any way before the
upper one was spread out upon it, the two are said to be =conformable=.
But if the lower bed has evidently been upturned or disturbed before the
other was laid down, or if its surface has even been partly eroded or
washed away by the water, the strata are said to be =unconformable=, or
they show =unconformability= in bedding.
Of course, in all this we are dealing only with =relative= time. When we
find one bed or stratum lying above another in their natural position,
the lower one is of course the older of the two; but whether laid down
ten minutes earlier, or ten million years earlier, how are we to
determine? Ignoring the matter of the fossils they contain, must we not
own that, though there is no way of telling just how much longer the
lower one was deposited before the next succeeding, yet if the two are
conformable to one another, and the bottom one shows no evidence of
disturbance or erosion before the other was fitted upon it, the strong
presumption would seem to be that no great length of time could have
elapsed between the laying down of the two layers. To say that we have
here a geological example similar to that of a modern American having
been personally acquainted with Julius Caesar, would seem to be quite
"inexplicable," as Herbert Spencer used to say.
But if the life succession theory be true, we have just such a conundrum
in our Fact Number Two, which is that =any formation whatever may rest
conformably upon any other "older" formation=.
The lower may be Devonian, Silurian, or Cambrian, and the upper one
Cretaceous or Tertiary, and thus according to the theory millions on
millions of years must have elapsed after the first, and before the
following bed was laid down, but the conformability is perfect, and the
beds have all the appearance of having followed in quick succession.
Sometimes, too, though less frequently, these age-separated formations
are lithologically the same, and can only be separated by their fossils!
But before going into the minute description of any of these cases, we
must notice some general statements. Thus as long ago as the date of the
publication of "The Origin of Species," Darwin, in speaking of the
"Imperfection of the Geological Record," could speak of "The many cases
on record of a formation conformably covered, after an immense interval
of time, by another and later formation, without the underlying bed
having suffered in the interval by any wear and tear."[20]
Also Geikie,[21] in speaking of how "fossil evidence may be made to
prove the existence of gaps which are not otherwise apparent," says that
"It is not so easy to give a satisfactory account of those which occur
where the strata are strictly conformable, and where no evidence can be
observed of any considerable change of physical conditions at the time
of deposit. A group of quite conformable strata having the same general
lithological characters throughout, may be marked by a great discrepance
between the fossils of the upper and the lower part." In many cases he
says these conditions are "not merely local, but persistent over wide
areas.... They occur abundantly among the European Palaeozoic and
Secondary rocks," and are "traceable over wide regions."
We have seen how Dana admits that "A stratum of one era may rest upon
any stratum in the whole series below it, ... the intermediate being
wanting." He classes this under the head of the "=Difficulties=" of the
science, quite naturally as it would seem, though he does not expressly
assert that these age-separated formations are often =conformable= to
one another, as Geikie and Darwin have said in the above given
quotations.
The literature really teems with illustrations of these facts, and the
more detailed accounts contained in the various Geological Reports are
often quite charmingly _naive_ in their description of the conditions.
Two examples, however, must suffice, both from the Canadian North West.
The first is from the Report on the region about Banff, in Alberta, near
the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and just east of the Rockies.
"East of the main divide the Lower Carboniferous is overlaid in places
by beds of Lower Cretaceous age, and here again, although the two
formations differ so widely in respect to age, one overlies the other
without any perceptible break, and the separation of one from the other
is rendered more difficult by the fact that the upper beds of the
Carboniferous =are lithologically almost precisely like those of the
Cretaceous (above them.) Were it not for fossil evidence, one would
naturally suppose that a single formation was being dealt with.="[22]
The other example is from the District of Athabasca.
"The Devonian limestone is apparently succeeded conformably by the
Cretaceous, and with the possible exception of a thin bed of
conglomerate of limited extent, which occurs below Crooked Rapid on the
Athabasca, the age of which is doubtful, the =vast interval of time=
which separated the two formations, is, so far as observed,
=unrepresented= either by deposition or erosion."[23]
Of course, some geological writers labor to explain this thundering
rebuke of their theory, just as the Ptolemaic astronomers had their
"deterrents" and "epicycles" for every new difficulty. But surely the
detailed records of such observations as these are fearful examples of
the power of tradition to blind the minds of investigators to the
meaning of the very plainest facts.
On a previous page (Id. p. 51,) the author last quoted gives us some
idea of the "remarkable persistence" of this instructive case of
conformability, which extends from the Athabasca "in a broad band around
the southern end of Birch Mountains, and across Lake Claire to Peace
River, and up the latter stream to a point two miles above Vermillion
Falls."
The distance, as I judge from the map, can not be less than 150 miles in
a straight direction, thus making a district of probably several
thousand square miles in extent where, according to the theory of a life
succession, nature must have put an injunction on the action of the
elements, and they had to continue in the _status quo_ for millions of
ages, or from the Devonian to the Cretaceous "age," the water neither
wearing away nor building up over any part of this consecrated ground
during all this time.
Nor is this all, for from Part E, Report (p. 209) of this same volume,
we are told of strata near Lake Manitoba, =over 500 miles away=, in
almost the same wonderful relationship,--"Devonian rocks very similar in
character" to those in Athabasca still overlaid directly by the
Cretaceous, though in this case as it happens "unconformably." It would
almost seem to be a _bona fide_ case of Werner's onion coats cropping
out.
And all this incredible picture of nature's inconsistent behaviour in
past ages is necessitated solely by the loving allegiance with which the
infallibility of the life succession theory is regarded by modern
geologists.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] "Origin," Vol. II., p. 58: Sixth Ed. The first edition, I believe,
contains the same language.
[21] "Text-Book," p. 842.
[22] Canadian "Annual Report," New Series, Vol. II., Part A, p. 8.
[23] "Annual Report," New Series, Vol. V., Part D, p. 52.