Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1878-03-16

inorganic SuOsL1IctS. r vi Ills Cistes are
the maierialists or Abiogenesists; while
Huxley, Darwin, and the most distin-
guished of modern biologists. are Bio
genesists; that is, they disclaim any
knowledge or comprehension of life,
except as the progeny OF pre-existent
life.
Another group of thinkers, of which
Prof, Asa Gray is type, accepts the
theory of evolution as an explanation
of the method bv which an inscrutable
power has produced all the phenomena
of creation. Its adherents see in the
theory nothing inconsistent with the ex-
istence of a Supreme Deity or with Rev
citation.
Still another class is that of which my
distinguished and excellent friend, Prof.
Dawson, OF Montreal, is champion,
and which rejects all forms Of evolution
as inconsistent alike with Revelation
and true science. My desire is TO give
brief summary of the facts-things
altogether too much neglected in this
diseussion-which geology offers 10 the
sincere inquirer after light on this sub
ject, and not to advocate this or that
theory.
In past ages a series of rock forma-
tons have been made which inclose
relics of animals and plants that lived
in former times. These series of rocks
contain a more or less complete history of
the changes which took place on the
earth's surface through millions of years
anterior to the advent of man. The
fossils of the paleozoic and Mesozoic
ages are about all extinct. 1t is only
when we come to the tertiary or Neozoic
age that we meet with living forms
What we call our terra firma
is really type of instability, for
under the constantly acting process of
contraction, the crust of the earth is
constantly being moved and folded, and
that somewhat irregularly, so that in
all ages some portion of the land has
been going up, other portions down,
and wherever the surface passed below
the sea level, the water would flow in
and deposit upon it one or another OF
the kinds of sediment which we find in
the series of rocks Sediments are still
forming from the shells and skeletons
of animals which inhabit the sea, and
which, in death, sink to the bottom. In
each age there has been subsistence of
the land, which has permitted the sea to
How in and deposit over the submerged
surface sediments which contain, in
greater or less numbers, the remains of
the animals and plants then living. This
rock history is Incomplete BECAUSE not
all the forms of life which existed would
be preserved, partly because many were
and chiefly those that inhab-
tied seas or drifted into them would
leave any relics behind them. This his |
tory, though more complete than would |
at first be deemed possible, is confess
eddy defective, and, must say, has been |
but partially read. Great areas of the |
worid's surface have yet been unstudied |
by geologists. While the subject is to !
be greatly Illuminated by future discov-
cry, there is very little probability that
the general conclusions of paleontology |
will experience any important modifica-
ton 70
Mammals began their existence, so |
far as we know, in the Trias, but
the Mesozoic ages held an |
subordinate and Insignificant
position. The reptiles occupied the sea.
the field and the air, for they were
swimmers and walkers and flyers; the
sea reptiles resembling the whales, as
we know them, and the sea serpents, as
we imagine them to exist at present.
The first bird, SO far as yet known, was
The archeopteryN, found in the litho-
graphic States Of Solenhofen, Bavaria.
Part reptile and part bird in anatomical
it was apparently clothed with
but the wings were short and
of plumes arranged radiately,
rs in fan; while the tail, prolonga-
ion OF the vertebral column, had the
shape of an oar-blade. 1t is supposed
ID had teeth. The flying dragon, or
Pterodactyls, of the Jurassic and Gre
.aceeus periods, had great wings, like a
eats in structure, and measured as