The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-04-13

one place, and let the dry land appear"
1t may perhaps be objected that, pari pdSSu, or
possibly sOmewhat before this elevation, the
water began to be filled with forms adapted to it,
viz, the lowest orders of vegetable and animal
life. But these are passed over in silence,
Moses neither affirming nor denying anything as
to their existence. OF this | shall have more to
say a little further on.
The seas and oceans are really only parts of
one great body, having for convenience different
names.
Moses says the waters were to be gathered
IS unto one place, and " 1t was So"
Geology reveals the fact that the emergence of
the land was a very long process, not attaining
completion until late in the Tertiary, when it
reached essentially its present outlines of coast.
and arrangement of mountains and valleys"
During this period, which included the ages of
Molluscs, Fishes, and Reptiles, and the more
ancient Mammals, lived the monstrous creatures
whose amazing bulk excites our wonder and al
most surpasses belief. Vegetation also advanced
from the spore-bearing sea-weeds, ferns and
equiseta, and naked-seeded conifers, through the
rank growth of the coal period, and completed
its development In its GROWING glory, the an
giosperms and palms, whose common character
istic is the production of fruit inclosing the seed.
About this time, too, grasses made their appear
ance.
Turning to the Mosaic story, we find nothing
whatever said of the earlier fowerless and seed
less vegetation. nor of the trees whose seeds were
not inclOsed in a fruit but instead, a carefully
worded description of a fora peculiar to Gre
taceous and Post-cretaCeOus times,-the noblest
and most useful orders, beyond which no progress
has since been made. The eleventh verse con-
tains a command to the earth to " bring forth
grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed Is
inside of it and it was So" And then it is
further said that the earth went on bringing
forth grass. and herbs, and trees yielding fruit
rrhAc Good . YnCT1n- e - nE.1 - -ak.-E-I IL
Divine Worker, who then pronounced it 9 good"
Turning back to the geological record, we find
that while angiOsperms and palms (trees bearing
fruit whose seed is inside of it) appeared in the
Cretaceous, ' ferns, %conifers, and cycads - (trees
whose seed is not inclosed in a fruit) 'still pre-
pOnderated." 1t is thought by the modern
school of biologists, that the new vegetation had
its beginning in ~circumpolar regions, which at
this time as is well known, possessed a sufficiently
genial climate. Whether this be so or not, it is
well established that during the next age-the
Tertiary-they spread over both continents, in
creasIng in variety and number, until at last
they became the dominant plants.t In these
geological facts, do we not find an explanation of
the apparent surplusage which, after announcing
the fiat and its f%ulfllment in the words, 80 and it
was so, > goes on to say that the earth brought
forth Git is, rather, continued bringing forth)
grass and herbs yielding seed and trees with seed
inside of the fruit, until the fora attained such
development that it was pronounced s. good -?
1t will be remembered that, according to the
story of the fossils, it was in this same age-the
TertIary-that the land was completed, and on
turning to Genesis, we are startled to discover
that the writer has placed both events in one
period-the third of this series.
There are but few disputes among scientists in
regard to our worlds history from the nebulous
condition to the close of the Tertiary but when
we leave that, and come to the Glacial Period,
we at once enter upon a battle field. No less
than eight different theories have been advanced
to account for the cold of that time, and these are
all advocated with more or less pertinacity even
at the present day. The disagreement extends
from the beginning of that cold epoch to the
dawn of history.
Here, then, L might justly stop and say to
those who lmpugn the truth of Genesis on scien-
tihc grounds when you have arrived at some
conclusion satisfactory to yourselves as to the
remarkable change which followed the compile
ton of the continents and the dominance of
angiosperms and palms, it will be time enough
to continue my work into the subsequent Mosaic
periods
Enough has been said already to show that
this narrative requires something more than
gibes and sneers. Without, therefore, at pres
ent entering into the consideration of the con-
ficting theories to which l have alluded, each
OF which finds more or less numerous but I'M
satisfied advocates, L shall briefly speak of few
facts about which there will be no dispute.
During, or perhaps just preceding, the
Glacial Period, so styled from the wide covering
of ice which extended far down toward the
equator, a change of terrestrial conditions oc-
CURED, remarkable not merely for the intensity
of the cold which it produced, but far more for
certain permanent results which are we'll worth
the scientists most careful consideration. From
the first, down to near the end of the Tertiary,
a most wonderful uniformity of plants and ami
mails prevailed over the globe. Closely allied, |
and in some cases identical, species fourished
in regions as diverse as Spitzbergen, Florida
and Bolivia. As Professor Dana says, speaking
of the earlier part of this period, there were no
zones of climate as far as can be discovered
from the plants and animals, and the same NAV
be said far down into the Tertiary. But after
the Glacial Period, and from that to the present
day, there was a wide divergence in the charac-
ter of the flora and fauna Of high and low lati-
tudes, and from that time they show the clear
est indications of " zones of climate"
Turning to Genesis we find placed between
the land completion and the production of fruit
trees, on the one hand, and the appearance of
" living Vertebrates on the other, some great
event which had to do with seasons" In the
order of our world history deduced from the
fossils, the Glacial Epoch was at this very point.
And with this | leave the subject of the fourth
period, which is much too large to be handled
here. L venture the assertion, however, after
as careful study in every department of lam
guage and physics bearing upon it as I am
N - OoN uCI bUdn
one would imagine), that no part of the whole
is more rich than this in harmonies
with the physical history of our globe. To do
it justice would need more than one article. for
it requires an exhaustive examination of the
of the earth before and after the close
OF the Tertiary, including a solution of the
problems of geology. 1t also requires
a careful study of the text itself freed from all
prePoSsessions for or against any particular
renderlng, and including the peculiar Hebrew
use of the verb : to be- followed by the infpi-
tive with lamedh prefxed. 1 may add that in this
are involved several questions as vet
scarcely attempted as to the cause and epoch of
The present arrangement of the lunar-telIuric
This much by way of apology for
passing over what some consider the chief diff
'ulty in the account. wish to confne myself
to matters which are admitted by all
TO save needless questions, 1 will say, without
urther argument, that the luxuriant vegetation
md the countless seeing animals demonstrate
hat the sun shone as clearly ages before this
ourth period as after it, and that, as far as I
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