The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-05-09
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.


! quite fair audience Cf our most Intelligent
citizens, Including cler.ymeh, lawyers, physi.
clans, students, with sprinllslng of the gentler
sex, were present ut the rooms of the Ottawa
Academy of Natural Scicnt4s on Thursday even
ing to hear the Hon CH'As. H. GILMAN on the
science of Geology. Tht lecture room is not
very largc-seatmg probably l5O-so that the
Judge could make himself heard without effort
and as his reading was deliberate and his enun.
citation remarkably distinct, it would have been n
pleasure to hear him even though his lecture had
been less interesting.
The lecture was Introductory in its nature, the
Judges purpose being to follow it up, at some
future time, by others. 1t treated therefore
mainly of the outline or elementary principles
of the science, as laid down in the best treatses
Oh the subject.
Geology he defined to be the science which in
vcstigatcs the successive changes that have tax
en- place in the organic and inorganic Kingdoms
of nature; or the science Of the structure Of the
earth. We find the earth composed of success
i've layers or strata of sandstone clay rock and
limestone, lying ono above the other in many
SUGGESTIONS. Geology, in studying this success.
sivc structure therefore becomes a historical
science 1t assigns periods TO the formation of
| the successive strata, and marks their growth by
cpochs, calling some remote and some recent
! Finding the beds or strata Of rock, instead Of
in horizontal, lying at various angles, or bent,
folded broken, dislocatcd, or lifted into noun
tain elevations, geology seeks ont the causes OF
these disturbances and notes them as facts in the
history. It therefore becomes a history of the
disturbances Of the cNrth's crust rs well as its
quiet formation.
Geological Investigation reveals the moluS OPP.
ra,,di of the formation of rock--by slow and
commonplace operations, such as can still be seen
going on. In Egypt the Nile is always adding TO
| lis delta by filling up the Mediterranean with
layers Of mud. Each years deposit is distin.
guishabc from the other, and the mean annual
thickness Of a layer can not exceed that Of paste
board; yet mountains 10000 feet high arc
composed Of just such layers. ii wc find in those
| layers the skeletons OF familiar animals, though
now in sold rock, the inference is Justified that
| it lies where it was embedded in sand or mud
The remains of animals, especially aquatic, arc
found embedded in all stratiiied rocks-in fact
rs in the case of limestone, they constitute the
rock itself. They occur away from the ocean at
all distances and on The highest mountains; yet
at the time of their formation they must have
been beneath the waters Of the ocean.
| The lecturer proceeded 10 define many OF the
technical TERMS used by biologists and 10 give a
more minute outline Of the science, and of its
intimate connection with natural history trac'
Ing animal life in all il, stages through the yari
Gus formations from the primary to post -tcrtiary
notin: the progression Of vegetable with ANNA!
! life.
But II would be impossible, in The space at our
/ disposal 20 give even the most mcagcr synopsi.
of the lecture which occupied over an hour in
its delivery. The lecturer va. heartily checrcd
at its close, and gave unaloyed pleasure by his
promise at some future time 10 deliver another
lecture which he hoped To make more accepta-
bic TO the general public by taking up the spec.
ulativc branches Of the subject including the
antiquity OF man, when he should eudcavor 10
show, that in considering the theories u geolc.
gsts and the claims set up FOR the science, one
needs TO exercise a large amount o' that Kind OF
, reason called common sense.