of the tribe. The Trilobites even of the Lower Cambrian comprise species
as large as living Crustaceans. The Ostrapods are generally larger than
those of recent times."[79]
Again, in speaking of the general character of the Cambrian fossils, he
says:
"The types of the early Cambrian are mostly identical with those now
represented in existing seas, and although inferior in general as to
grade [in the "Phylogenic series"], they bear no marks of imperfect or
stunted growth from unfit or foul surroundings." (p. 485.)
The well known Mollusk, _Maclurea magna_, which is so enormously
abundant in the Silurian, is often eight inches in diameter, and the
astounding Cephalopod genus, _Endoceras_, consisting of twenty species,
found only in two divisions of the Lower Silurian, has left shells over
a foot in diameter, and ten or twelve feet long!
Of the fishes of the Devonian we have, among other remarks of a similar
character, the following:
"The Dipnoans, or 'Lung-fishes,' were represented by gigantic species
called by Newberry _Dinichthys_ and _Titanichthys_, from their size and
formidable dental armature.... A still larger species is the
_Titanichthys clarki_ of Newberry, in which the head was four feet or
more broad, the lower jaw a yard long. This jaw was shaped posteriorly
like an oar blade, and anteriorly was turned upward like a sled
runner."[80]
One of the ancient Eurypterids from the Old Red Sandstone of Europe has
a length of six feet, which is more than three times that of any
Crustacean now living. While a gigantic Isopod Crustacean from the same
strata had a leg the basal joint of which was three inches long, and
three-quarters of an inch through, which is larger than the whole body
of any modern species.
The ancient "Horse-tails," "Ground-pines," Ferns and Cycads were trees
from 30 to 90 feet high, and their carbonized stems and leaves make up
many of our largest and best beds of coal. Compared with them the modern
representatives are mere herbs or shrubbery.
Of the gigantic insects of the Devonian and Carboniferous beds we might
make similar remarks. Some of the ancient locusts had an expanse of wing
of over seven inches; while many of the ancient Dragon-flies had bodies
from a foot to sixteen inches long, with wings a foot long and over two
feet in spread from tip to tip.
Here is James Geikie's summary of the leading types of the Palaeozoic:
"Many Palaeozoic species were characterized by their large size as
compared with species of the same groups that belong to later times.
Thus, some Trilobites and other Crustaceans were larger than any modern
species of Crustaceans. The Palaeozoic Amphibians also much exceeded in
size any living members of their class. Again, the modern club-mosses,
which are insignificant plants, either trailing on the ground or never
reaching more than two feet in height, were represented by great
lepidodendroid trees."
Sternberg, in speaking of some of the frogs which he found in the
Permian of Texas, says:
"I found several skulls that measured over a foot from the end of the
chin to the distal point of the horns.... I think when alive the frog
must have been six feet long."[81]
He mentions another specimen which was "about 10 feet long," the head of
which was "about 20 inches in length," with jaws "more powerful than
those of an ox."
Of the monstrous Dinosaurs of the Mesozoic rocks one hardly needs to
speak.
"They were the most gigantic of terrestrial animals, in some cases
reaching a length of 70 or 80 feet, while at the same time they had a
height of body and massiveness of limb that, without evidence from the
bones, would have been thought too great for muscle to move."[82]
They abound in both the Old and the New World.
Of the gigantic Mammals of the Tertiary beds of the Western States, it
would also be superfluous to speak; their gigantic size is known by
every high school pupil, or every one who has visited any important
museum in Europe or America.
We may perhaps be reminded again that all the species of these "older"
rocks are extinct species. I have already suggested the grave doubts on
this point, regarding the great mass of the lower forms of life, plant
and animal; but we will let that pass. But let us take some of the
"late" Tertiary and Pleistocene mammals, which cannot be distinguished
from living species, and how do we fare? It is the same old story; the
moderns are degenerate dwarfs.
The hippopotamus (_H. major_) is a good one to start with, for Flower
and Lydekker[83] say that it "cannot be specifically distinguished from
_H. amphibius_" of Africa. This gigantic brute used to live in the
rivers of England and Western Europe. The text-books generally say in
"Pliocene times," because, I suppose, no one has the courage to suggest
that it lived under the ice of the "Glacial period." We are always
pointed to the wool on the rhinoceros and the mammoth as indicating a
somewhat cool climate, but the well known amphibious habits of the
hippopotamus cannot be so easily disposed of. But if, as I believe, this
world never saw a foot of ice at the sea level till the end of the
"Pleistocene period," to speak after the current manner, the problem
becomes very simple. In that case the time of the Hippopotamus in
England was neither earlier nor later than that of the palms and acacias
of the "early" Tertiary or Mesozoic rocks, or than that of the mammoth,
lion, and hyena of the Pleistocene. There is as we now know absolutely
nothing but an out-of-date hypothesis to indicate that they did not all
live there together. We may, if we choose, try to dovetail those
conditions into the present on the basis of uniformity and slow secular
change, by assuming a few million years for the process, but there is
neither a particle of evidence nor of probability that the hippopotamus
was not contemporary alike with the palms of the Eocene and the
elephants and lions of the post-Tertiary.
As for the mammoth itself, which Flower and Lydekker have intimated may
turn out identical with _E. Columbi_ and _E. armeniacus_, and thus the
direct ancestor of the modern Asiatic elephant (_E. indicus_), some have
argued that its average size was not greater than that of the existing
species of India and Africa. But Nicholson says that it was:
"... considerably larger than the largest of living elephants, the
skeleton being over sixteen feet in length, exclusive of the tusks, and
over nine feet in height."[84]
Dana is equally positive:
"The species was over twice the weight of the largest modern elephant,
and nearly a third taller."[85]
The upper incisors or tusks were very much longer than in the modern
species, being from ten to twelve feet long, and sometimes curved up and
back so as to form an almost complete circle. As these tusks continue to
grow throughout life, their enormous length is, I take it, a proof of
much greater longevity and thus of greater vitality than in the cases of
the modern species. The latter is simply a degenerate.
And so I might go on with the Edentates, the Ungulates, the Rodents, the
Carnivores, etc., for the same thing must be said of all.
As Sir William Dawson[86] remarks:
"Nothing is more evident in the history of fossil animals and plants of
past geological ages than that =persistence or degeneracy are the rule=
rather than the exception.... We may almost say that all things left
to themselves =tend to degenerate=, and only a new breathing of the
Almighty Spirit can start them again on the path of advancement."
In spite of the long popular views of Cuvier, every modern scientist
admits that the great lion and hyena of the Pleistocene are identical
with the living species of Africa. Many say the same thing of the fossil
bear as compared with the modern brown bear and the grizzly, though, as
Dana remarks of all three, lion, hyena, and bear, "these modern kinds
are dwarfs in comparison."
I quote again from Dana:
"Thus the brute races of the Middle Quaternary on all the continents
exceeded the moderns greatly in magnitude. Why, no one has
explained."[87]
This was in 1875. In the last edition of his "Manual," published
shortly after his death, he has this to say in addition:
"A species thrives best in the region of fittest climate. =In the
Pleistocene, the fittest climate was universal.= Geologists have
attributed the extinction of most of the species and the dwindling of
others to the cold of the Reindeer epoch. It is the only explanation yet
found, though seemingly insufficient for the Americas." (p. 1016.)
However, since the discovery of the pictures of the reindeer and the
mammoth drawn and even painted =side by side= on the caverns of Southern
France, undoubtedly from life and by the same artist, we do not hear so
much about the "Reindeer epoch," and the "Mammoth epoch." A little
thought should have suggested long ago that it was more reasonable to
suppose the reindeer, glutton, musk-ox, etc., to have been originally
adapted to the high mountains and table lands of that ancient world,
than to imagine all the fauna careering up and down over continents and
across seas like a lot of crazy Scandinavian lemmings, as the migration
theory involved. But most geologists seem never to have had any use for
mountains or plateaus, except to breed glaciers and continental
ice-sheets. But the only point which I wish to insist upon here is that
the cause, =whatever it was=, that made such a zoological break at the
"close" of the Pleistocene, and which compelled the shivering,
degenerate survivors, that could not stand the new extremes of frost and
snow, to shift to the Tropics--this cause was certainly competent to do
a good deal more work in the way of "extinction" or "dwindling" of
species than the uniformitarians have generally given it credit for.
And in summing up this matter regarding the size and physical
development of species, we must confess that we find in geology no
indication of inherent progress upward. Variation there is and variation
there has been, even "mutations" and "saltations," but with one voice do
the rocks testify that the general results of such variation have not
been upward. Rather must we confess as a great biological law, that
=degeneration has marked the history of every living form=.
FOOTNOTES:
[79] "Manual," p. 487.
[80] pp. 618-9.
[81] _Pop. Sc. News_, May, 1902, p. 106.
[82] Dana, "Manual," p. 761.
[83] "Mammals, etc.," p. 281.
[84] "Ancient Life-History," p. 357.
[85] "Manual," p. 998.
[86] "Modern Ideas of Evolution," Appendix.
[87] "Geol. Story Briefly Told," p. 229.
CHAPTER XII
FOSSIL MEN
There is still another fact which we must consider ere we can frame any
wise or safe induction regarding the geological changes. It is this:
=Man himself, to say nothing of numerous living animals and plants, must
have witnessed something of the nature of a cosmic convulsion--how much
it is the object of our search to find out.= Even according to the
ordinary text-books, he must have seen the uplifting of the greater part
of the mountain chains of the world; while he certainly lived in
conditions of climate, and of land and water distribution, together with
plant and animal surroundings, which preclude the possibility of
dovetailing those conditions into the present order of things on any
basis of uniformity.
By this proposition I simply mean that Man must have witnessed a cosmic
geological catastrophe of some character and of some dimensions--the
true nature and probable limits of this catastrophe ought to be the
chief point of all geological inquiry. But instead of this method,
instead of finding out whether our present world was ever a witness of
such an event, the founders of the science began at the little end of an
assumed succession of life (involving a preposterous supernatural
knowledge of the past), and gradually worked up a habit of explaining
everything in terms of Uniformity long decades before they would
acknowledge that Man or the present order of things had anything to do
with this fossil world. The evidence on this latter point finally became
overwhelming; but with their habit of Uniformity well mastered, and
their long, single file of life succession all tabulated off and
infallibly fixed, modern geologists have hitherto refused to look at the
whole science from this new point of view, or to reconstruct geological
theory if need be in accordance with a true modern induction.
And in this proposition the reader will understand that I believe in
what is called "Tertiary man." I am aware that a few scientists still
contest this view, but the evidence (from the standpoint of current
theory) seems to me to be overwhelmingly against them. But in this fact,
if it be a fact, that Man lived under the wholly strange and different
conditions of "Pliocene" or perhaps "Miocene times," is =THE VERY
STRONGEST POSSIBLE ARGUMENT= that I can conceive of for the necessity of
a complete reconstruction of geological theory--I mean, of course, apart
altogether from the preposterous way in which the life succession was
assumed and built up and then treated as an actual fact. It was when
this grim fact of Man's inseparable connection with the fossil world was
borne in upon me, that I began to realize the possibility and imperative
necessity of reconstructing the science on a truly inductive basis.
I shall not undertake to give a complete up-to-date argument for
"Miocene" or even "Pliocene Man." The subject is still under discussion
as to =just how far back= along this thin line of receding life forms
Man actually did live, and from the peculiar methods now in vogue which
are so wholly subjective in character, it would seem to be capable of
settlement in almost any way one chooses. However, whole volumes are
being written on the subject, and the end is not yet. But there is no
denying that human remains have frequently been found in strata which,
but for their presence, would have been assigned a place far back in
"Tertiary time." The existence of strong evidence for "Tertiary Man" no
one would think of denying.
In all this, of course, I am considering the question from the common
uniformitarian standpoint. But why should it be necessary for us to
positively settle the question as to just how far back in geological
time Man actually did live? For those who have attentively read my
statement of the unscientific methods of classifying these Tertiary and
post-Tertiary beds--or all the others for that matter--I need not here
add any further argument if the accepted succession of life is, to put
it as mildly as possible, not quite a scientific certainty; if the
time-honored custom of classifying these so-called "superficial" beds by
their relative percentages of extinct and living forms rests under a
shadow of suspicion as to its scientific accuracy; if, above all, we do
not at the beginning prejudice the whole case by the assumption of
uniformity, =what need is there of determining whether "Pliocene" or
"Miocene" shells are found with these fossil human remains?=
That Man lived in Western Europe contemporary with those giants of the
prime, the elephant and the musk-ox, the rhinoceros and the reindeer,
the lion, the Cape hyena, and the hippopotamus, at which time a very
different distribution of land and water prevailed over these parts,
with a radically different mantle of climate spread over all, no one
will deny for a moment. Such facts are now found in the primary
text-books for our children in the public schools.
But since geologists still classify the rocks as they do, and give a
time value to percentages of extinct and living species of marine
shells, etc., we are in a measure compelled to take the matter where we
find it, and enquire how far back in geological time, i.e., among what
kinds of fossils, are human remains found?
One of the best popular works on the subject that I know of is "The
Meeting-Place of Geology and History," (1894) by Sir J. W. Dawson;
though, like all other works of its kind written from the religious
standpoint, it endeavors as far as possible to minimize the evidence in
support of Man's geological antiquity.
This author thinks that Dr. Mourlan, of Belgium, has "established the
strongest case yet on record for the existence of Tertiary Man." (p.
30.) It is that of some worked flints and broken bones of animals
"imbedded in sands derived from Eocene and Pliocene beds, and supposed
to have been remanie by wind action." Prestwich[88] has brought forward
similar facts; and though the evidence in favor of the genuine
geological character of these remains seems to me little if any better
than that from the auriferous gravels of California, I am willing to
=take them as reported=.
Dawson speaks of the nearly entire human skeleton described by
Quatrefages from the Lower Pliocene beds of Castelnedolo, near Brescia,
and only answers it with a sarcastic remark about the well developed
skull of this ancient man.
"Unfortunately the skull of the only perfect skeleton is said to have
been of fair proportions and superior to those of the ruder types of
post-Glacial men. This has cast a shade of suspicion on the discovery,
especially on the part of evolutionists, who think it is not in
accordance with theory that man should retrograde between the Pliocene
and the early modern period instead of advancing."[89]
Lastly, we have the following about the Miocene:
"There are, however, in France two localities (Puy, Courney and Thenay),
one in the Upper and the other in the Middle Miocene, which have
afforded what are supposed to be worked flints."
He adds that "The geological age of the deposits seems in both cases
beyond question;" but contents himself with a derisive answer about
these chipped flints being possibly "the handiwork of Miocene apes."
This language, coming from such a source, would seem as good evidence as
is needed to prove that Man was contemporary with, and that his remains
are now found among the fossils of the Middle Miocene. For it must be
remembered that these are reluctant admissions drawn from this
illustrious scientist, who was one of the last champions of the old
ideas about the "recent" origin of Man. As Pres. Asa Mahan of Cornell
has said, "Admissions in favor of truth from the ranks of its enemies
constitute the highest kind of evidence." At any rate, I shall treat
this point as already proved, =for whether this particular instance is
accepted or not, practically all modern writers admit the fact of
"Middle Tertiary Man."=
I have already alluded to the recently discovered paintings on the cave
walls of Southern France, where reindeer, aurochs, horses and mammoths
have been reproduced with striking accuracy and skill, and of such an
age that they have in places been covered by stalactites over two inches
in thickness. The Marquis De Nadaillac,[90] who has given the best
description of these interesting antiquities that I have been able to
see, remarks that "the drawing is wonderful," and that "we are justly
astonished to find such artistic performances in times so distant from
ours, and in which we did not suppose a like civilization."
I have not seen the geological date to which these remains have been
assigned, but doubtless it is the very "latest" part of the
Pleistocene--they show far too high a development for "Miocene" or even
"Pliocene times." But I should like to be shown some good and sufficient
reason for saying that these men are not just as likely to have been
contemporary with the Middle Tertiary fauna and flora as any others.
=Some men were as commonly admitted.= And in the name of sacred common
sense, if the human period is thus elastic enough to stretch out over
the Pleistocene, the Pliocene, and clear back to the "Middle Miocene,"
=why can't we do the same for all of man's strange companions=, the
mammoth and the Cape hyena, the reindeer and the hippopotamus, the lion
and the musk-ox, etc.? The usual sneers about it being impossible for
this apparently incongruous mixture to live side by side in the same
district must now cease. They certainly did live side by side, as is
shown by these companion pictures of the mammoth and the reindeer in the
very southern part of sunny France, to say nothing of the numerous cases
where the bones of the above mentioned animals are all mixed together
indiscriminately. How is it unreasonable to suppose that these
elephants, lions and hippopotami lived beneath the "early" Tertiary
palms, cinnamons, and mimosas of the lower elevations, while the
reindeer, musk-ox and glutton lived beneath the maples, birches and
beeches of the high mountain sides? Some such conditions must have
existed, for that magnificent world, whose ruins we now find buried
beneath our feet, was a =homogeneous and harmonious= unit in its plant
and animal life, in spite of the fables upon which we have so long been
fed in the name of geological science. Things which are equal to the
same thing must be equal to one another; hence the plants and animals
which were contemporary with the same creature (Man) must have been
=contemporary with each other=; and hence there is absolutely nothing to
forbid the idea that Man and his Pleistocene companions were really
contemporary with the flora and fauna of the Middle Tertiary.
Hence we may now proceed to inquire what geological changes have
occurred since the "Middle of the Miocene," according to the accepted
teachings of geology.
Our first point must be that of climate, and I have already given
abundant evidence to show that at that "time" an abundant warm-climate
vegetation mantled all the Arctic regions. As already quoted from
Wallace, throughout the whole Arctic regions, and during the whole of
geological time, "we find one uniform climatic aspect of the fossils,"
and "It is quite impossible to ignore or evade the force of the
testimony as to the continuous warm climate of the North Temperate and
Polar Zones throughout Tertiary times."
That this astonishingly mild and uniform climate prevailed over these
regions until and during the time of the mammoth, we ought not to have a
shadow of doubt. =What single bit of positive evidence is there to show
that it did not?= That he must have had some such vegetation on which to
feed is certain, and there is no proof of any previous interruption of
these conditions save a series of hypotheses. He and his fellows browsed
on semi-tropical and warm temperate plants far within the Arctic Circle,
if there happened to be land there, doubtless over the very Pole itself;
but suddenly!! lo, something caught him with the grip of death--
"And wrapped his corpse in winding-sheet of ice,
And sung the requiem of his shivering ghost."
Who has not read of their untainted meat now making food for dogs and
wolves? Their stomachs are well filled with undigested food, showing, as
one author remarks, that they "were quietly feeding when the crisis
came." Dr. Hertz recently reported one not only with its stomach full of
food, but with its mouth full, too. No wonder that even an orthodox
geologist like Prof. Dana is compelled to say that these things prove
"that the cold finally became =suddenly= extreme, as of a single
winter's night, and knew no relenting afterward."
Here then is one very notable geological event which has taken place
within the human epoch, and the only thing of its kind of which geology
has an undeniable record, viz., a sudden and radical change in the
earth's climate; =a cosmic affair, and not a local phenomenon=. I need
not here attempt to discuss the how of this world catastrophe as it must
have been, or the other changes inseparably involved. The fact itself is
as certain as Man's own existence.
The next division of our subject, in further consideration of the
changes that have taken place since Man's existence, as stated at the
beginning of this chapter, relates to the changes of land and water
distribution since "Middle Miocene times." And here again I shall try to
take the classification of these rocks just as I find them.
The first thing which impresses us is the extremely fragmentary
distribution of the Miocene and Pliocene beds. Not, however, that they
are uncommon nor yet of small extent. On the contrary they are scattered
over America and Eurasia--and all the rest of the globe for that
matter--like the spots on a leopard, or the warts on a toad's back, till
it becomes one of the unsearchable mysteries of the science how these
innumerable patches can be got down under the ocean to receive their
load of sediment, without deluging the surrounding regions in a similar
manner. But then, to be sure, fresh-water lakes will answer the same
purpose, and are particularly indicated when the proportion of plants
and terrestrial animals is =in excess= of the true marine fossils. And
so enormous fresh-water basins are described here and there, with the
great mammals crowding about their margins in their zeal to become
fossilized, that the mountain tops may be saved from going under once
more--or perhaps I should say to enable the modern writers to get some
of these strata puckered up to their full height before these "late"
Tertiary deposits were made. This mountain making business is another
affair that geologists would like to have take place on the installment
plan, but unfortunately it seems to have been nearly all postponed till
the very close of "geological time." This arrangement of fresh-water
lakes saves the central Rocky Mountain region from going down again
beneath the deep. But it cannot save the Alps, Juras and Appennines in
Europe, nor parts of the Himalayas, and I know not what other mountains
in Asia, nor the coast region of California and Oregon in America, to
say nothing of large parts of the Andes in South America, with regions
in Africa and Australia.
But what is the use of trying to figure out the amount of our earth
which has been under the ocean since "Middle Tertiary times," and thus
since Man was upon it? To save the northern half of Europe with all of
Canada from again going under at the close of the "Tertiary period,"
geologists have spread out their continental ice sheets, and have asked
them to do duty instead of water. But this is hardly sufficient, for the
"upper" or "later" part of the so-called "Glacial" deposits are clearly
stratified; and so they either invoke a "=flood vast beyond
conception=," as Dana does in America for the "final event in the
history of the glacier," or, as others prefer, the whole region is
baptized again. As Dawson says in his "Meeting-Place of Geology and
History," "=No geological event is better established than the
post-Pliocene submergence.="
But I must not weary the reader by dwelling on this monotonous
repetition of catastrophes--for must they not have been catastrophic if
such ups and downs of whole continents are crowded within the human
period? We may allow a number of thousands of years for Man's possible
existence, but Archaeology and History alike protest against the
=millions= of years required to explain these continental oscillations
on any basis of uniformity. One such period of horror ought to be enough
for us, and to understand or explain it in a truly scientific manner, we
must with it correlate the sudden and world-wide change of climate
already described.
One more point demands consideration ere we complete this subject of
what Man has witnessed of geological change. For, according to current
theory =almost all the mountains have been either wholly formed or at
least completed within quite "recent" times=: indeed many of the
greatest mountain chains have been puckered up from the position of
horizontal strata wholly since "Miocene times," which for us means since
Man was upon the globe.
Thus Dana in speaking of the part of Western America which has been
elevated since "Miocene times," says that it--
"... probably included the whole of the Pacific mountain border, from
the line of the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific coast line and outside
of this line for one or more scores of miles."[91]
And he adds the significant words:
"Contemporaneously, similar movements were in progress over the other
continents: along the Andes, affecting half, at least, of South America;
the Pyrenees, Carpathian Alps, and a large part of Europe; the Himalayas
and much of Asia." (p. 365.)
Let us now take a brief glance at a few of the details of what these
mountains were thus doing while Man was living in semi-tropical England,
or at least Western Europe.
In speaking of foreign examples of Tertiary mountain-making this author
devotes especial attention to the Alps and the Juras, for their
structure is better understood, having been more carefully studied. And
of an example described by Heim, already spoken of, he says:
"One of the overthrust folds in the region has put the beds upside down
over an area of 450 square miles. Fifty thousand feet of formations of
the Jurassic, Cretaceous, Eocene Tertiary and Miocene Tertiary, were
upturned =at the close of the Miocene period=."[92]
With what a whack must this mighty mass of rocks have fallen on
itself--miles in thickness, and turned "upside down over an area of 450
square miles"!!!
Of course I am here taking the record just as I find it, as I have
already discussed this matter of "overthrust folds."
I need not give further examples from the other great mountain ranges.
Their structure is not so well understood as that of the Alps, though
doubtless when examined they will be found just as "young," and just as
full of astonishing mountain movements as those already examined. But
this much is already certain, that =practically over all the world the
mountains were either completed or wholly raised from the sea level=
during "late Tertiary" and "early Quaternary time." No wonder Dana says
that this fact "is one of the most marvelous in geological history."
"It has been thought incredible that the orographic climax should have
come =so near the end= of geological time, instead of in an early age
when the crust had a plastic layer beneath, and was free to move; yet
=the fact is beyond question=." ("Manual," p. 1020.)
I think I have now abundantly proved the various heads of the
proposition with which I began this chapter, viz., that even from the
standpoint of the current theories:--[93]
(1) Man must have seen the entire elevation or at least the completion
of practically all the great mountains of the world, such as the
Rockies, Andes, Alps, Himalayas, etc.
(2) The relative distribution of land and water surface has--since Man's
advent as commonly stated--changed completely. The land and water have
practically changed places over the greater part of the globe.
(3) Man lived while the Arctic regions had a mild soft climate, and he
lived to see these conditions so suddenly changed that some of his dumb
brute companions were caught in the waters and frozen so speedily that
their flesh has remained untainted. Other considerations show this
change of climate to have affected the whole globe.
The lesson to be drawn from this as the last fact in the line of
cumulative evidence here presented, will be considered in the following
chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[88] "Controverted Questions of Geology," Article III., 1895.
[89] "Meeting-Place," pp. 28, 29.
[90] _Pop. Sc. News_, Feb. 1902.
[91] "Manual," p. 364.
[92] p. 367.
[93] (Note. In this discussion I have purposely ignored the various
instances where human remains have been reported from deposits of
even greater "antiquity" than the Middle Tertiaries.)
CHAPTER XIII
INDUCTIVE METHODS
In the First Part of this book I tried to examine into the facts and
methods which are commonly supposed to prove that there has been a
succession of life on the globe. We found that this life succession
theory has not a single fact to support it; that it is not the result of
scientific research, but wholly the product of an inventive imagination;
that no one kind of fossil has even been proved or can be proved to be
intrinsically older than another, or than Man himself; and hence that a
complete reconstruction of geological theory is imperatively demanded by
our modern knowledge.
In the Second Part I have brought out the following additional facts:
1. The abnormal character of much of the fossiliferous deposits.
2. A radical and world-wide change of climate.
3. The marked degeneration in passing from the fossil world to the
modern one.
4. The fact that the human race, to say nothing of a vast number of
living species of plants and animals, has participated in some of the
greatest of the geological changes--we really know not how to limit the
number or character of these changes.
Surely a true spirit of scientific investigation would now begin to
inquire, =How did these changes take place?= Discarding the use of
stronger language, it is at least utterly unscientific to begin
somewhere at the vanishing point of a past eternity and formulate our
pretty theories as to how this deposit was made, and how that was laid
down, and the exact order in which they all occurred; while these
"recent" deposits, in which our race and the plants and animals living
about us are acknowledged to be concerned, are left over till the last,
and we then find that they admit of absolutely no explanation. We
ourselves, to say nothing of thousands of living species of plants and
animals, have participated in some of the very greatest of the
geological changes--we know not how many or how great. =These things
must be first explained.= Has anything happened to our world that will
explain them? Are there known forces and changes now in operation which,
granting time enough, will amply and sufficiently explain these facts,
as simply one in kind with those of the present day?
To this last question we must admit that our historic experience,
prolonged over several thousand years, utters a thundering =NO!=
Volcanoes are every now and then breaking forth; but volcanoes and
mountain ranges have nothing in common with one another as to structure
and origin. No one claims that a single mountain flexure is now being
formed or has been formed within the historic period. There are indeed
"creeps" in the rocks in certain places, but these are not such as to
contribute to the height of the mountains in which they occur, but
rather the reverse. Sudden changes of level within small areas have
occurred, but neither in extent nor in kind do they furnish any key as
to past changes of level; while the so-called "secular" changes are so
microscopic in extent and so doubtful in character that they are utterly
unworthy of consideration in view of the stupendous problems which we
are trying to explain. The well-known work of Eduard Suess is a standing
protest that such geological chances are =not now in progress=; for, in
speaking of how the land and ocean have exchanged places in the past,
Zittel represents him as teaching that their "cause of origin until now
=has not yet been discovered=."[94]
Or, to quote the expressive words of Suess himself, with which he
concludes his discussion of this very subject:
"As Rama looks across the ocean of the universe, and sees its surface
blend in the distant horizon with the dipping sky, and as he considers
if indeed a path might be built far out into the almost immeasurable
space, so we gaze over the ocean of the ages, but =no sign of a shore
shows itself to our view=." (Id. p. 294.)
As for climate, I never heard any one suggest that cosmic changes of
climate are now known to be going on, much less that =sudden= changes of
the kind indicated by the North Siberian "mummies" are in the habit of
occurring. In fact, we must all own that the mountains, the relative
position of land and water, as well as the climate of our globe, are
each and all now in a state of stable equilibrium, and have been in this
state since the dawn of history or of scientific observation.
Accordingly I ask, =How much time is needed= to account for the facts
before us on the basis of Uniformity? In common honesty will a short
eternity itself satisfy the stern problem before us? I cannot see that
it holds out the slightest promise of solving it; while, on the other
hand, I am sure that, in dealing with the past of Man's existence
(theories of evolution and all other theories of origins whatever cast
aside), we are not at liberty to make unreasonable demands of time. The
evidence of history and archaeology is all against it.
From the latter sciences it can be shown that at their very dawn we
have, over all the continents, a group of civilizations seldom equalled
since save in very modern times, and all so undeniably related to one
another and of such a character that they prove a previous state of
civilization in some locality =together=, before these scattered
fragments of our race were dispersed abroad. We can track these various
peoples all back to some region in Southwestern Asia, though the exact
locality for this source of inherited civilization has never yet been
found, and it is now almost certain that it is somehow lost in the
geological changes which have intervened. For when we cross the well
marked boundary line between history and geology, we have still to deal
with men who apparently =were not savages=, men who with tremendous
disadvantages could carve and draw and paint as no savages have ever
done, and who had evidently domesticated the horse and other animals.
But as to time, history gives no countenance to long time, i.e., what
geologists would call long. Good authentic history extends back a few
score centuries, archaeology may promise us a few more. As for
=millions= of years, of even a few =hundred thousands=, the thing
seems too absurd for discussion, unless we forsake inductive methods,
and assume some form of evolution _a priori_.
Hence it ought to be evident that no amount of learned trifling with
time will solve our problem without supposing some strange event to have
happened our world and our race, long ago, and before the dawn of
history. I see no possible way for scientific reasoning to avoid this
conclusion. Ignoring for the present the Chaldean Deluge tablets, and
what Rawlinson calls the "consentient belief" in a world-catastrophe
"among members of all the great races into which ethnologists have
divided mankind," which like their civilization has the earmarks of
being =an inheritance= from some common source before their dispersion,
we may note that most geologists now admit the certainty of some sort of
catastrophe since man was upon the earth. I might mention Quatrefages
and Dupont, Boyd Dawkins, Howorth, Prestwich, Wright and Sir William
Dawson, with many others. Even Eduard Suess teaches a somewhat similar
local catastrophe, though like the others only as a reluctant concession
to the insistent demands of Chaldean history and archaeological
tradition. But all of these affairs are mere makeshifts in view of the
tremendous demands of the purely geological evidence, and all alike
(save perhaps those of Wright and Howorth) labor under the strange
inconsistency of supposing that such an event could occur without
leaving abundant and indelible marks upon the rocks of our globe. While
in view of the evidence given through the previous pages, I insist that
the purely geological evidence of a world catastrophe is immeasurably
stronger than that of archaeology, that in fact the whole geological
phenomena constitute a cumulative argument of this nature.
But if this be granted, we must then inquire, What was its nature? and
what its extent? The former is quite easily answered: the latter problem
is still somewhat beyond our reach.
As to its character, the evidence is very plain. It was a veritable
cataclysm of some sort: it deals with great changes of land and water
surface. If the geological succession is but a hoary myth, and if we
find countless modern living species of plants and animals mixed up in
all the "older" rocks, we cannot ignore these in a rational and
unprejudiced reconstruction of the science. But, ignoring these, we must
remember that =even the Tertiary and post-Tertiary deposits are
absolutely world wide, and are packed with fossils of living species=.
Not a continent and scarcely a country on the globe but contains great
stretches of these deposits, laid down by the sea where now the land is
high and dry. The sea and land have practically shifted places over all
the globe since Man and thousands of other living species left their
fossils in the rocks. It is only the stupendous magnitude of these
changes which has made our scientists reluctant to admit the possibility
of such a catastrophe.
With the myth of a life succession dissipated, a broad view of the
fossil world cannot fail to convince the mind of the reality of some
such cosmic convulsion, and convince it with all the force of a
mathematical demonstration. Great groups of animals have dropped out of
sight over all the continents, and their carcasses have been buried by
sea water where we now find high plateaus or mountain ranges. Ignoring
completely the abundant fossils in the so-called "older" rocks, and
fixing our attention entirely on the Tertiary and Pleistocene beds that
are acknowledged to be closely connected with the human race and the
modern world, we still have =a problem in race extinction alone= that
appalls the mind. The mammoth, rhinoceros and mastodon, together with
"not less than thirty distinct species of the horse tribe," as Marsh
says, =all disappear from North America at one time=, and the most
ingenious disciple of Hutton and Lyell has been puzzled to invent a
plausible explanation. But when we consider that at this same
"geological period" =similar events were occurring on all the other
continents=--the huge ground-sloths (megatheriums) and glyptodons in
South America; "wombats as large as tapirs," and "kangaroos the size of
elephants" in Australia; the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros in Eurasia;
together with an enormous hippopotamus, as far as England is concerned,
to say nothing of those great bears, lions and hyenas, with a
semi-tropical vegetation, =all disappearing together at the same time=,
or shifting to the other side of the world--it becomes almost like a
deliberate insult to our intellectual honesty to be approached with
offers of "explanations" based on any so-called "natural" action of the
forces of nature. But when, in addition to all this, we consider the
fact that those human giants of the caves of Western Europe were
contemporary with the animals mentioned above, =and disappeared along
with them at this same time=, while mountain masses in all parts of the
world crowded with marine forms of the so-called "older" types
positively =cannot be separated in time from the others=, it becomes as
certain as any other ordinary scientific fact, like sunrise or sunset,
that our once magnificently stocked world =met with some sudden and
awful catastrophe in the long ago=; and is it in any way transgressing
the bounds of true inductive science to correlate this event with the
Deluge of the Hebrew Scriptures and the traditions of every race on
earth?
We have already seen how Dana supposes =two= such events, one at the
close of the "Palaeozoic age," and the other at the close of the
"Mesozoic," merely to account for the astonishing disappearance of
species at these periods when the fossils are arranged in taxonomic
order; but if we once admit such an event =with Man and all the other
species contemporary with one another=, where shall we limit its power
to disturb the land and water and churn them all up together, leaving
the present simply as the ruins of that previous world? The fact is, the
current Geology is wholly built up from the Cambrian to the Pleistocene
on the =dogmatic denial= that any such catastrophe has occurred to the
world in which Man lived, for =one= such event happening in our modern
homogeneous world is enough to make the whole pretty scheme found in our
text-books tumble like a house of cards. Like the patient and exact
observations of the Ptolemaic astronomers, which accumulated volumes of
evidence contradicting their own theories, and which in the hands of
Copernicus and Galileo, Kepler and Newton, sealed the doom of
astronomical speculation and laid the foundations of an exact science of
the heavens; so have the indefatigable labors of thousands of geologists
accumulated evidence which strikes at the very foundation of the current
Uniformitarianism, and casts a pall of doubt over every conclusion as to
how or when any given deposit of the "older" rocks was produced.
Here we must leave the question for the present. The possibility of such
a world-wide catastrophe, which might account for the major part of the
geological changes, needs no apology here. The slightest disturbance of
the nice equilibrium of our elements would suffice to send the waters of
the ocean careering over the land; and in the abundance of astronomical
causes competent for such disturbance we cease to regard such an event
as necessarily contrary to "natural law." The possibility of such a
thing no competent scientist now denies; it is the problem of =recovery=
from such a disaster which makes the perplexity. But incredible or not
as the latter may be regarded, I claim to have established a perfect
chain of scientific argument proving a world-wide catastrophe of some
sort since Man was upon it. But this fact, if once admitted, strikes at
the very foundation of the current science, and bids us readjust our
theories from this view-point. The venerable scheme of a life succession
=becomes only the taxonomic or classification series of the world that
existed before this disaster=, and it becomes the business of our
science to find out how many and what deposits were =due to this event=,
and what were accumulated during the =unknown period= of previous
existence. Those of us who wish to speculate can then let our
imaginations have free play as to the uncounted ages before that event;
but the "phylogenic series" as a rational scientific theory is in limbo
forever. Inductive geology, therefore, deals not with the formation of a
world, but =with the ruins of one=; it can teach us absolutely nothing
about origins.
The latter problem lies across the boundary line in the domain of
philosophy and theology, and to these systems of thought we may
cheerfully leave the task of readjustment in view of the facts here
presented. A few disconnected thoughts along these lines I have ventured
to insert here, not strictly as a part of my purely scientific argument,
but as an appendix.
FOOTNOTE:
[94] "History," p. 320.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
REFLECTIONS
In the preceding pages I have endeavored to develop a scientific
argument pure and simple. Yet I do not feel called upon to apologize in
any way for attempting now to show the connection between an inductive
scheme of Geology as set forth in the body of this work and the religion
of Christianity; though my remarks along this line must necessarily be
very brief.
The most fundamental idea of religion is the fatherhood of God as our
Creator. The only true basis of morality lies in our relationship to Him
as His creatures. During the latter half of the nineteenth century the
Biblical idea of a creation at some definite and not very remote period
in the past became much modified by reason of certain theories of
evolution, which explained the origin of plants and animals as the
result of slow-acting causes, now in operation around us, prolonged over
immense ages of time. These theories, though built up wholly on the
current Geology as a foundation, were yet supposed to be firmly
established in science, and after a spirited discussion among biologists
for a few years, were almost universally accepted in some form or other
by the religious leaders of Christendom. And though the "Theistic
Evolution" of recent years may be supposed to have modified somewhat the
stern heartlessness of pure Darwinism, it still leaves the Christian
world quite at variance with the old Pauline doctrines regarding good
and evil, creation, redemption, the atonement, etc.
And these are not the only effects of the general acceptance of these
ideas as an explanation of the origin of things. We see their moral
effects in the generation now coming on the stage of action--men
educated in an atmosphere of Evolution, and accustomed from youth to the
idea that all progress, whether in the individual or the race, is to be
reached only by a ceaseless struggle for existence and survival at the
expense of others. In the words of Sir William Dawson, these doctrines
have "stimulated to an intense degree that popular unrest so natural to
an age discontented with its lot ... and which threatens to overthrow
the whole fabric of society as at present constituted."[95]
This popular and perfectly natural application of the evolution doctrine
to every-day life is certainly intensifying, as never before, the innate
selfishness of human nature, and, in every pursuit of life, embittering
the sad struggle for place and power. Perhaps no other one cause and
result serve more plainly to differentiate the present strenuous age
from those that have gone before. The hitherto undreamed-of advantages
and creature comforts of the present day, instead of tending toward
universal peace and happiness, are apparently only giving a wider range
to the discontent and depravity of the natural human heart. So much so,
that any one familiar with the history of nations cannot but feel a
terrible foreboding creep over him as he faces the prospect presented
to-day by civilised society the world over.
The only remedy for the many and increasing evils of our world is the
old-fashioned religion of Christ and His apostles. And this applied, not
to the state, but to the individual. The soul-regenerating truths of
Christianity have always, wherever given a proper test by the
individual, resulted in moral uplift and blessing. Ecclesiastical
policies and ideas have always, wherever allowed to influence civil
legislation, resulted in oppression and tyranny.
What has Geology to do with all this? It has much to do with it. Correct
ideas of geology will remove a great many vain notions--I had almost
said superstitions--regarding our origin, which now pass under the name
of science. And in thus removing false ideas it =leaves the ground
cleared= for more correct ideas regarding =creation=, and thus for truer
concepts of =morality=, the old idea of "must" and "ought" based on our
relation to God as His creatures.
Mark the words I have used. =Inductive Geology can never prove
creation.= It may remove obstructions which have hitherto obscured this
idea, but this is the utmost limit of any true science. Inductive
Geology removes forever the succession-of-life idea, and thus may
=suggest= the only seeming alternative, viz., Creation as the definite
act of the Infinite God. Before this awful yet sublime fact, with all
the fogs of evolution and metaphysical subtleties cleared away, the
human mind stands to-day as never before within historic times.
With a fairly complete knowledge of the chemical make-up of protoplasm,
with a good acquaintance with the life history and reproduction of
living cells, we yet =know nothing of the origin of life=. With a good
working knowledge of variation, hybridization, etc., =we know nothing of
the origin of species=. While with a fairly good understanding of the
present geographical distribution of species, and of where their fossils
occur in the rocks, we are =profoundly ignorant of any particular order=
in which these species originated on our globe, or whether they all took
origin at =approximately one and the same time=. In short, having
reached out along every known line of investigation, until we have
apparently reached the limits of the human powers in investigation and
research, twentieth century science must stand with uncovered head and
bowed form in presence of that most august thought of the human mind,
"=In the beginning God created=."
And yet, personally, I am firmly convinced that the origin of life and
of our cosmos, was according to law, and the laws of nature. As has been
said, How could the origin of nature be contrary to nature? How could
the origin of present forms and conditions be in any way at variance
with the laws by which these forms or conditions are maintained? And
while I do not consider it a very promising field of research, we ought
to have no more reluctance, _per se_, to considering the manner in which
the first cell or the first species was formed, than the way in which a
chicken is produced from the egg. Of course in either case we must have
the materials, and some outside Cause to originate the conditions and
conduct the process; they both require the immanent presence and
fostering care of the great Creator.
In this connection I beg leave to quote somewhat at length from my book,
"Outlines of Modern Science and Modern Christianity."
"We are getting no nearer the real mystery in the case by saying that
all the tissues of the chick are built up by the protoplasm in the egg.
The protoplasm in the toes is the same as that in the little creature's
brain. Why does the one build up claws and the other brain cells? Does
memory guide these little things in their wonderful division of labor?
But they all started from one original germ cell, hence they all ought
to have the same memory pictures. Or have they entered into a
mutual-benefit arrangement, like the members of a community, as Haeckel
would have us believe, each contributing by actual desire and effort, I
suppose, an individual share to the general progress of the whole?--No;
they have all the appearance of being mere automata working at the
direct bidding of a Master Mind. Every step of the process needs a
Creator, just as much as the first cell division. In the words of one of
the highest of scientific authorities, 'We still do not know why a
certain cell becomes a gland-cell, another a ganglion-cell; why one cell
gives rise to a smooth muscle-fibre, while a neighbor forms voluntary
muscle;' and this also 'at certain, usually predestined, times in
particular places.'[96] And in the same way the idea of a Creator would
not be disposed of, even if we could possibly hit upon the probable
process of world-formation. We would not, by understanding the process,
really get at the cause of the phenomena, any more than we do now at the
real cause of life. From the scientific method the real mystery remains
as much behind the veil as ever before." (pp. 111, 112.)
Again I quote from this same work:
"The origin of organic nature could not well have been otherwise than by
natural process. Do we understand all natural processes? At some time
life was not in existence on our globe. All agree that it had a
beginning. Even if created by the great Creator, the living was at some
time formed from the not-living or the not-material. It does not take
even Huxley's famous 'act of philosophic faith' to believe that. So
that, in spite of all the haze that has been thrown about this question,
the Biblical creation of the organic from the inorganic is no more
contrary to, or even outside of, natural law than is evolution....
"But see what we avoid. According to the Bible, death in even the lower
animals (and consequently all misery and suffering: the less is included
in the greater) is only the result of sin on the part of man, the head
of animated nature, a reflex or sympathetic result, if you will. But
with evolution we have countless millions of years of creature
suffering, cruelty, and death before man appeared at all, cruelty and
death that ... have no moral meaning at all, save as the work of a fiend
creator, or a bungling or incompetent one."[97]
The author then gives a quotation from LeConte, illustrating the
extremely various ways in which matter and energy act on the different
planes of their existence, while "The passage from one plane upward to
another is not a gradual passage by sliding scale, but at one bound.
When the necessary conditions are present, a new and higher form of
force at once appears, like birth into a higher sphere.... It is no
gradual process, but sudden, like birth into a higher sphere."[98]
The argument then proceeds as follows:
"The living at some time originated from the not-living. =We call it
creation.= Can any one find a better name? It is preposterous to call it
a process of development or evolution due to the inherent properties of
the atoms, and effected by them alone. And yet it is doubtless as much
according to 'natural law' as are the invariable and exact combinations
of chemistry. We do not understand the ultimate reasons for chemical
affinity any more than we do for gravitation. They are only expressions
of the methodical, order-loving mind of Deity. Creation was only another
action of the same mind, and we are not really finding any new
difficulty when we say that the processes or the reasons for creative
action are beyond our comprehension. When we can really solve some of
the myriad problems right before our eyes, it will be time enough to
complain about creation being incomprehensible or contrary to 'natural
law.'
"Well, then, remembering that, even according to Huxley's 'act of
philosophic faith,' the origin of the living from the not-living must at
some time have taken place according to natural law, =why should we
suppose that such a process was confined to one example=? If, when the
young planet 'was passing through physical and chemical conditions which
it can no more see again than a man can recall his infancy,' the
'necessary conditions' were favorable for one such creation of life,
=why not a few billion=? Would the production of a few billion such
beginnings of protoplasm be any less 'natural' than of one alone?
Remember, however, that both the arrangement of these 'necessary
conditions,' as well as the endowing of matter with these 'properties,'
not only requires a cause, but this cause must be intelligent, for there
is indisputable design in this first origin of life.... The food for a
developing embryo might, for aught that we know, be conveyed to it
direct from the ultimate laboratories of nature, and it thus be built up
by protoplasm in the usual way, without the medium of a parent
form--other than the great Father of all. Or would it be any less
according to natural law to believe that a bird passed through all the
usual stages of embryonic development from the not-living up to the
full-fledged songster of the skies =in one day=--the fifth day of
creation? And =if one example, why not a million=? For, remember that
the youthful earth was then passing through strange conditions, 'which,'
as Huxley says, 'it can no more see again than a man can recall his
infancy.'"[99]
Omitting some remarks about embryology, I continue this quotation as
follows:
"But what 'law' would be violated in this springtime of the world if,
instead of twenty years or so for full development, the first man passed
through all these stages =in one day=--the sixth of creation week? He
might as well have originated from the not-living as the evolutionist's
first speck of protoplasm, for he certainly now starts from a mass of
this same protoplasm, identical, as we have seen, in all plants and
animals.
"And by originating thus, he would escape that horrible heritage of
bestial and savage propensities which he would get through evolution, a
heritage that would make it not his fault, but his misfortune, that sin
and evil are in the world, and which would also shift the responsibility
for the evidently abnormal condition of 'this present evil world' off
from the creature to the Creator, and change to us His character from
that of a loving Father, fettered by no conditions in His creation, to
that of either a bungling, incompetent workman or a heartless fiend;
for, though I am almost ashamed to write the words, the god of the
evolutionist must be either the one or the other." (p. 121.)
* * * * *
=With an appreciation nurtured by centuries of study of God's larger
book, baffled often though she has been, and disappointed many times in
the words she has endeavored to spell out, Science to-day proclaims its
subject, its title page, which she has now at last deciphered, "In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
FOOTNOTES:
[95] "Modern Ideas of Evolution," p. 12.
[96] "_Nature_," May 23, 1901, pp. 75, 76.
[97] "Outlines," etc., p. 116.
[98] "Evolution and Religious Thought," pp. 314-316.
[99] "Outlines," etc., p. 119, 120.
REPORT ON "ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY"
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Transcriber's Note:
Punctuation has been standardised, in particular, missing periods have
been supplied where obviously required. All other original errors and
inconsistencies have been retained, except as follows; (the first line
is the original text, the second the passage as currently stands):
must less of the co-existing faunas of other
much less of the co-existing faunas of other
which it discusses from a purely scientfic
which it discusses from a purely scientific
works of Dana, Le Conte, Prestwich, and Geikie
works of Dana, LeConte, Prestwich, and Geikie
of looking into the =geneology of an idea=.
of looking into the =genealogy of an idea=.
history of science did a stranger halucination
history of science did a stranger hallucination
we know they are today in "recent" deposits
we know they are to-day in "recent" deposits
The author then gives a quotation from Le Conte,
The author then gives a quotation from LeConte,
But is is equally evident that each successive
But it is equally evident that each successive
dominated Mediaeval scolasticism and made it
dominated Mediaeval scholasticism and made it
The Glacian Nightmare and the Flood,
The Glacial Nightmare and the Flood,
larger species is the _Titnichthys clarki
larger species is the _Titanichthys clarki
happening in our modern homogenous world is enough
happening in our modern homogeneous world is enough
widespread numulitic limestones of the Eocene
widespread nummulitic limestones of the Eocene
of organic creation on the instal ment plan,
of organic creation on the instalment plan,
Numulites or Mammals positively were not living
Nummulites or Mammals positively were not living
here and there to make this incredible thicknss,
here and there to make this incredible thickness,
about 1830 it came to the recognized, other
about 1830 it came to be recognized, other
the bison is today absolutely extinct,
the bison is to-day absolutely extinct,
See Le Conte, "Evol. and Religious Thought,"
See LeConte, "Evol. and Religious Thought,"
they are directed rather to the empyrical method
they are directed rather to the empirical method
fitting "like a glove" on the preceeding.
fitting "like a glove" on the preceding.
Le Conte, "Evol. and Rel. Thought," pp. 33, 34
LeConte, "Evol. and Rel. Thought," pp. 33, 34
and spcial monographs in German and French.
and special monographs in German and French.
But to incrase this antiquity by saying
But to increase this antiquity by saying
Lions and monkys, hippopotami and crocodiles,
Lions and monkeys, hippopotami and crocodiles,
and rhinoceroces, now live beneath the palms,
and rhinoceroses, now live beneath the palms,
scientists who can elaborate geneological trees of descent
scientists who can elaborate genealogical trees of descent
have taken for these excedingly numerous
have taken for these exceedingly numerous
the Pleistocene Mammals and the middle Tertiary flora
the Pleistocene mammals and the middle Tertiary flora
literature is fairly innundated with new names;
literature is fairly inundated with new names;
a noted paiaeontologist for finding a pupa
a noted palaeontologist for finding a pupa
the theories of the igenous origin of the crystalline rocks
the theories of the igneous origin of the crystalline rocks
went to school toegther, served in the same wars,
went to school together, served in the same wars,
=or are now to be found iiving in our modern world=
=or are now to be found living in our modern world=
e.g. gratolites and numulites
e.g. gratolites and nummulites
these Davonian and other rocks are absolutely
these Devonian and other rocks are absolutely
it cannot save the Alps, Juras and Appenines
it cannot save the Alps, Juras and Appennines
without leaving abundant and indellible marks
without leaving abundant and indelible marks
which it can no more see again than a can can recall
which it can no more see again than a man can recall
and yet refuse the =evidently complemntary= dposits
and yet refuse the =evidently complementary= deposits
pages of the ordinary text-boks.
pages of the ordinary text-books.
these is no telling what hosts of similar facts
there is no telling what hosts of similar facts
but so far as the text-boks tell us are
but so far as the text-books tell us are
as recent as the numulitic limestones of the Eocene
as recent as the nummulitic limestones of the Eocene
[Footnote 2: "Old Red Sandstone," pp. 48-221-2.]
[Footnote 2: "Old Red Sandstone," pp. 48, 221-2]
for thousands of skletons are found in localities
for thousands of skeletons are found in localities
is easily understod as the survival of the notion,
is easily understood as the survival of the notion,
the dim past, and all these semitropical plants had
the dim past, and all these semi-tropical plants had
=better established than the post-Piiocene submergence.="
=better established than the post-Pliocene submergence.="
example described by Helm, already spoken of,
example described by Heim, already spoken of,
The former is qulet easily answered:
The former is quite easily answered:
=race extinction alone= that appals the mind.
=race extinction alone= that appalls the mind.
which in the hands of Copernicus and Galilio,
which in the hands of Copernicus and Galileo,
CHAPTER XII INDUCTIVE METHODS
CHAPTER XIII INDUCTIVE METHODS
In the last edition of his "=Manual=,"
In the last edition of his "Manual,"
pre-conceived theory would at the suggestion of such
preconceived theory would at the suggestion of such
evolution and metaphysical subtilties cleared away,
evolution and metaphysical subtleties cleared away,
End of Project Gutenberg's Illogical Geology, by George McCready Price