The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-08
EARTH CHANGES.

the upheaval of Ischia and destruction of
Casamcciola, July 2S followed by the disap-
pearance OF an entire range of coast noun
tains in Java and the formation of range
of volcanic mountains across the Straits of
Sunda, attended with the destruction of
human lives equaling half the population
of indianapolis in number, are matters of
serious contemplation.
But those versed in the common facts of
cosmology are aware that such disasters are
the natural attendants of forming world
1t is not unlikely that our earth is any ex-
eeption, in Its developtnental history, to the
course through which the other planets have
passed, or are to pass. Made of the same
chemical elements, subjected to the same
forces as are its sister spheres, it must
of necessity run the same course,
and ultimately meet the same destiny.
Those who, as either scientists or poets, have
contemplated all this work of time, say that
"The solid earth on which we tread,
In tracks of fluid heat began.
And grew to seeming random forms,
The seeming prey of cyclic storms,
Till at the last arose the man."
Evolution has taught no nobler truth than
that the earth and man Also its highest flow
er and fruit are participant in nature, rather
than dominant; the earth is, like man, an
organism-a part of nature only. Like tree
or an animal, or like the life of nation, the
history of the earth is cyclic, and must run
its round from cosmic gas through the stage
of perfection in which we now see it to its
ultimate destiny.
The same agencies-air, water, fire and
organic life-which have modified its sur
face from the beginning are still in operation.
Some of these agencies as the action
of fire and water, have been decreasing
through geologic times; others have been
increasing; and it is the constant change of
balance between these forces which has de-
termined the development of the earth as
gigantic organism. and has given rise to those
cataclysmc changes so destructive OF organic
life over large areas, as we'll as of those secu-
lar changes of far greater scope and signii-
canoe, but which are not observed except by
scientific research.
The atmosphere, by the chemical action OF
its oxygen, carbonic acid and watery vapor
acting at all times and places on the surface
has disintcerated the rocks by oxidation, and
also by freezing and thawing, and so has
formed the permeable soils. The winds have
+bo tho 90
northern Indiana, of Egypt and France, are
well-known examples while in the northern
States all the soil above the bed rock, in the
region of the glacial drift has been shifted
about by wind or water
By the mechanical action of water and the
chemical action of the salts it holds in solu-
ton, erosion, transportation and sedmentary
deposition has been effected upon the hard
ened rocks ever since the earth has been cool
enough for water to exist in the fluid state
In the form of meteorc waters-fog, rain
snow or sleet and hail, or acting as river
currents, waves or tides or again as glaciers
ice foes and bergs, the general mechan-
ical effect of water has been to cut down the
continents and make the empire of the sea
universal over the earth, while at the same
time, by their solvent action, the iron, salt,
silica, gypsum, and limestone have been
taken up and redeposited over areas of con-
tinental proportions. But the action of
wind or water is so gradual, except as an &C.
casonal cyclone avalanche or food rain,
that these Transforming agencies rarely con-
flict with the peace or comfort of the hui
man race. The same is true of the or
ganic agencies, which as agents modl-
ferior to air and water. To the action of
vegetable life is due the boys and swamps
and peat-beds which cover immense areas OF
northern countries, as we'll as the 800, 900
square miles of coal beds in Europe and the
United States, and also the bog iron ores of
the peat-beds Animal life has deposited the
coral reefs and shell deposits, which have
formed the limestones and marbles and the
chalk regions OF the world, the extent of
which is that Of the continents and sea-
bottoms, while the Introduction of man as a
telluric agent-modfying the earth by des-
truction of forests reclamation OF lands
from the sea, and in thousand other ways
marks the advent OF a new force in the earth
Italian biologists hold that, with the rea-
son and intelligence of man producing
such wholesale changes in the amount and
distribution of the fauna and flora of the
world, a new geological element was
introduced in the quartenary age,
while Mr.. Marsh, in his erudite