FACT NUMBER FOUR
There is only one class of agents now working upon the rocks of the
globe which have been in business continuously ever since the dry land
appeared, and which have left us a legible record of approximately the
amount of business they have been doing all these centuries. And my Fact
Number Four, which will complete this line of argument in illustrating
the antagonism between the facts of the rocks and the theory of life
succession, is that the =rivers= of the world, which of course are the
agents to which I have referred, in traveling across the country, =act
precisely as if they knew nothing of the varying ages of the rocks=, but
on the contrary treat them all alike as if they were of the same age,
and =as if they began sawing at them all at the same time=. Of course it
is, evidently, in only a few cases where the records are so free from
ambiguity as to be quite incapable of being misunderstood, that is, the
cases of rivers with steep rocky gorges, or those that cut through
mountain ranges; but there are several such rivers in the world, and
they all seem to tell the same story.
The famous Colorado River is a good example. It flows from "younger"
strata into "older" in its deep cutting across the Arizona plateau.[32]
Stated in terms of the current theory, this means that when the region
of country about the lower part of this river's course first became dry
land, the upper part was still sea, and that thus there was no such
river in existence here until the very "youngest" of these rocks was
formed. For otherwise the river must have started running from the sea
toward the dry land, i.e., running up hill. Stated in terms neutral as
to theory, it means that the whole of this region of country, drained by
this large river, with its rocks of many varying "ages," was all
elevated practically as it is now before this river began its work of
erosion. It treats all these rocks as if they were of the same age, and
as if it began sawing at them all at the same time.
Also its companion, the Green River, cuts through the Uinta Range in the
same manner. Similar conditions are said to occur on the Danube, and in
the river-courses of the Himalayas, and elsewhere.
In the case of the Colorado, Zittel says that:
"Powell's explanation of the apparent enigma is that after the river had
eroded its channel rocks were uplifted in one portion of its course, but
so slow was the rate of uplift that the river was enabled to deepen its
channel, either proportionately or more rapidly, so that it was never
diverted from its former course."
It was by similarly cunning inventions that the early writers on
astronomy, alchemy, and medicine evaded the force of accumulated facts
which told against their absurd theories.
We have now completed our survey of the strictly stratigraphical phases
of this question, and have found four very remarkable principles about
the rocks, which I wish to summarize here before proceeding further.
(1) The "broad fact," as stated by Zittel and Dana, that any kind of
rocks whatever, i.e. containing any kinds of fossils, even the
"youngest," may rest on the Archaean, and may thus in position, as also
in texture and appearance, resemble the very oldest deposits on the
globe.
(2) That any kind of beds may rest in such perfect conformability on any
other so-called "older" beds over vast stretches of country that, "were
it not for fossil evidence, one would naturally suppose that a single
formation was being dealt with," while "the vast interval of time
intervening is unrepresented either by deposition or erosion." The
youngest seem to have followed the oldest in quick succession.
(3) That in very many cases and over many square miles of country these
conditions are exactly reversed, and such very "ancient" rocks as
Cambrian limestones are on top of the comparatively "young" Cretaceous,
while the lime between them "acts exactly like the line of contact of
two nearly horizontal formations," and in a natural section made by a
river the two "appear to succeed one another conformably." To any one
ignorant of the theory of life succession they have every appearance of
having been deposited as we find them.
(4) That the rivers of the world, in cutting across the country,
completely ignore the varying ages of the rocks in the different parts
of their courses, and act precisely as if they began sawing at them all
at the same time.
Now I know not what additional fact can be demanded or imagined to
complete the demonstration that there is =no particular order= in which
the fossils can be said to occur as regards succession in time. It is
true, some fossiliferous deposits, metamorphosed almost beyond
recognition, and buried deep beneath thousands of feet of subsequent
deposits, have enough appearance of remote antiquity about them in all
conscience. But to increase this antiquity by saying that other equally
prodigious masses of rocks elsewhere were deposited long after these, or
by pointing to still other deposits in another region which are said to
be older than any of the others, is an illogical and wholly unscientific
procedure. I fear I could scarcely confine myself within the bounds of
parliamentary language were I to attempt to express an opinion regarding
any effort that may now be made to justify the life succession theory in
view of the above acknowledged facts.
And surely it is scarcely necessary in this enlightened age to point out
how completely this vitiates any biological argument (such as that of
Darwinism) which has incorporated into its system the results of such
illogical reasoning, or which in any way is dependent upon the
conclusions of such a theory of geology. In view of the laws of
evidence, which every intelligent person is supposed to understand
now-a-days, surely some strange things passed for scientific proof
during the nineteenth century. For, as we have seen, the earlier
geologists did little better than =assume= the succession of life
bodily; than Agassiz and his contemporaries =arranged the details= and
the exact order of these successive life forms by comparison with the
embryonic life of the modern individual; and now the evolutionists of
our day, led by such men as Spencer and Haeckel with their "phylogenetic
principle," =prove their theory of evolution= by showing that the
embryonic life of the modern individual is only "a brief
recapitulation, as it were, from memory," of the (assumed) geological
succession in time. Surely this will some day make a more amazing record
for posterity than those of phlogiston or the epicycles of Ptolemy.
If I am now asked: What do the rocks have to tell us, in view of the
fact that they refuse to testify to a life succession? I can only say
that we are not as yet in a position to decide this question. There are
several other matters connected with the character and mode of
occurrence of the fossils, which are almost equally important with
anything already considered, in forming a true scientific induction
regarding this matter. These facts must be considered in subsequent
chapters. Already, however, we can say this much, that we have in the
rocks almost as complete a world, in some respects vastly more complete,
than the living world of to-day. With the life succession theory
repudiated, we have still to deal with the fossils themselves which have
been thus systematically classified; =but this geological series becomes
only the taxonomic or classification series of an older state of our
present world=, buried somehow and at some time or times in the remote
past--the how and the when of which we have not as yet the means to
determine.
But I think we are now prepared to enter the mazes of the biological
argument, and to study the subject of extinct species, which by many is
supposed to furnish a line of independent evidence in favor of the life
succession theory.
FOOTNOTE:
[32] See Zittel, "History of Geol.," pp. 210, 211.