Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1874-09-10
.THlS GRAND OLD EARrEs.''
Two Lectures by Professor Denton

From the Virginia independent.
Upon mounting thc rostrum on Fri
day evening tie lecturer announced
the subject of his forthcoming lectures
as our grand old earth with its 100 OOO,-
900 inhabitants. He said to our pen-
pie, especially, the study of geology
ought to be "a matter Of dollars and
cents: how much unnecessary labor
would have been spared the prospec-
tors and miners of Nevada had they
been conversant with geology! In
this first lecture he would state that
there were originally two organic ele-
ments at work on our globe-fire and
watcr-that these two elements had
formed what We're called
Firc.made Rocks and Wntcr-mn:le
EOelAs!
That the granite formatio" was of the
former and most ancient denOmina-
ton; that is to say, that granite rocks
were formed by the gradual cooling of
the fiery matter: while all subsequent,
including the silurian, the devonian,
the carbOniterOuS, and the more recent
tertiary and Quarternary formations,
were of the denomination of water
made rocks, that is to say, they had
been formed by the gradual wearing
away of the granite rocks by the action
of water upon them. In the course of
his address the lecl urer explained the
action of volcanoes, referring to the
destruction of Herculaneum and
Pompeii, with which those of our
readers who have read Bulwer Lytton's
'Last Days of Poinpcii" are familiar.
lie Stated-a fact better known and ap-
preciated in all its bearings by the
people on the Con,StOck than any
where else in the world, the lccturcr
S,id-that
The Desaer We Dalve Into tlsc Earth
VIC Greater the Heat
Becomes; and said there are no excep-
tions to this almost universal rule, in
stancing a case in Siberia where a we'll
had been dur to Il depth of $50 feet in
frozen ground.
In his second lecture, Mr.. Denton
treated of life in its early forms, show
ing the gradual progress of animal
life, and illustrating his remarks by
references to charts and fossils, the
latter ranging in age from one hun
dred thousand to hundreds Of millions
of years; their age was proven beyond
Il doubt by the .ht of geology; there
fore. the earth was not 60,0GO nor l00.-
900, but thousands of millions of Years
old. He then proceeded TO explain
The Formation Of Metallic Vei.,s.
And said that ut some time in TIE his
tory Of our planet the metals which
are now found in what are known as
ne,al bearing veins, must have floa,cd
in one vast ocean, according to their
dcn,i;y-pla'ina being lower than
gold, gold than silver, and 50 on
through the entire scale. When this
molten mass had reached sufficient
degree of heat, these meals had he
come volatilizcd, and assembled to the
creviceS in the rocks hy the action OF
volcanoes and earthquakes. where
they had again Solidiiied and taken po-
,ition according to their density. And
in this connection the lecturer stated
he had no doubt there Was
Much More Col: than Lead in Our
Planet.
And the only reason cold was SO
hi.hly priced was because it laid at
such depth in the bowels OF The earth
that it could not be extracted, and he
gave it as his opinion that We would
never get To where il lay.