Daily Republican., 1879-09-23
Lecture ON Geology.

Sr0l. uunnlng delivered nlb lntroouc-
tory lecture on Monday evening. He
began by showing the anatomy Of the
earth 3 crust. 1t is composed Of two
Glasses or families Of rock, the one mas
sive and crystalline, the other strait
fed, that Is arranged in beds or leaves.
He showed then that the massive rocks,
like granite, are in general the Oldest.
He then showed how under the air
the werld is wasting away and how
under the oceans It is building anew.
The waste Of continents accumulates
under the seas and will form the rocks
OF other continents. An animal that
dies in the sea, or an animal whose
body may be borne down to the sea,
drops into the sea-mud and its skeleton
petriHes. II the bed Of the Atlantic
we're laid dry We would find in 1t the
ruins Of all the forms Of life which have
peopled 1t and its bounding lands. We
walk on the dried bottom Of an older
Atlantic.
Wherever We stand on rocks spread
out in leaves or beds we stand on the
bottom Of an ancient sea. Now when
such rocks are studied in the order in
which they were made We find them to
be volumes Of the Globes Life His
tory.
The lamp Of law we are to flash on
these by.gone creations must be lit at
the altar burning to-day. The speaker
invited his audience to q stroll along a
living sea beach. With chalk and col
ored postels he drew the chief life pat
erns and showed the laws Of structure
He showed how from part we can de.
termine the whole animal.
He applied this method to the dead
creation, and took his audience back
through the history of the globe as read
in the rocks Of North America. Starting
in Florida a. the youngest part Of thu
tinent, not more, he thought, than
las COO years old, he showed that th'
Florids rocks do not hold the ruins o
an animal that is not represented in thu
living world. =. Lid.
In Alabama he found the rock sys-
tenn next in age behind Florida. This
system he drew, indicating its place il
the earth's crest, and from its creates
fossil he restored gigantic whale-lik'
animal which peopled the sea wher
the sea covered Alabama. Wyoming
was next sketched, then Utah, ther
Colorado, then, for the next rock-groul
below Colorado. Wilmington, Delaware
There We have the junction ofItwo rock
systems, the Jurassic and Cretaceous
and banked by enormous outpourint
trap, an ancient form Of lava.
By this method the speaker wen
back through the successive systems to
ward the beginning, reconstruoting anc
showing out on the canvas the chic
animal types Of each period. He re
fsrred to the granite Of Canada and
showed that this Is the Oldest rock OF
the continent. Putting the differen'
systems together and adding up thu
thickness as we measure 1t by the up
turned edges, we find just II miles o
rocks between the coral limestones o
Florida and the granite Of Canada.
We have read the chapters Of thii
great book only by the title pages
We have reached the first page Of thi
great book Of death. Life began wheI
the granite that ribs the Adirondack
and forms the low mountains Of Cana
da like mud on a sea bottom. Takinl
the rate at which sediments are grow
| ing now on the bed of the British Chan
mel, and laying it as time-scal
against the two miles Of rock-leave
that lie between the granite Of tn
Adirondacks and the old red liant
stones Of the Catskills, it will give u
for the formation Of these rocks 10000
900 years.
The true head and brain did not ap
pear till the times of the Old Red Lane
Stone. From this date the globe mus
had spun on 4O.000,00O years befor'
It had brains! Forty million years di'
it take creation to get under Roadway
The lecture on Thursday evenin!
will be on Man in the Geologic Record