Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-05-24
THE EVERLASTING HILLS
Prot. Richard 4. Proctor. In The Fort
nightly Review for April.
a Great Subject Discussed by Truly
Great Scientist.

continents formed, and the vast depres-
sions produced which are the beds of
oceans and seas. While the science of to-
day regards the mountain ranges of the
earth as far more ancient than men i'm
aglned even when they spoke of 1.-The ev-
erlasting hills" that same science,
strangely enough, sees In the mightiest
mountain masses the signs of youth
rather than of age. Compared with the
worn ranges included under the geograph-
zeal expression, "5he Scandinavian
Alps" the veritable Alps are as the child
rem OF yesterday, the Himalayas and the
Andes younger yet. Cotopaxi, which
raises its crater mouth toward the heav-
ems nearly 10000 feet above the sea level,
Is but youthful compared with the volcan-
&c outlets whose ''basal wrecks" alone re-
main in the Inner Hebrides. Yet noun.
tain ranges, though themselves compare
lively young, attest in another way the
vast age of our earth. The materials of
which they are formed, regarded as leaves
of the great terrestrial volume of
natures awful Bible, are for the
most part as Of yesterday. But
those leaves are formed of materials be-
longing to ages far more remote. Their
very existence attests not only vast peri
DDS OF time during which the earth's de-
nuding forces fashioned them out of
older material. but speaks also of stage
after stage of past existence, during
which the self-same material formed part
of many successive strata. The core,
indeed, even of the youngest mountain
ranges, belongs to the earth's primevaI
crusts. [ cannot but touch on the
solemnity OF the lesson taught by the
earth's strata with regard to time. AS
tronomy tells of vaster regions of space
than the geoiogist has to deal with-Lay,
of spaces so vast that, compared with
them, the thin shell of our world, which
the geOlogist can here and there examine,
seems absolutely nothing. Astronomy
considers also periods of time which far
surpass even the millions of years over
which the geologic record extends. But
astronomy no tangible record of the vast
periods of time of which the cyclic
| movements of the heavenly bodies give
evidence. The geologist touches and
handles the material produced in past
ages by processes which he can watch in
actual progress now. He has material
evidence of the millions of years whereof
he speaks, whereas the astronomer,
| though he may be as certaiN practically
| even vaster periods, can give no direct
evidence for the faith that is in him.
But few even among those who have
studied the geological record are fully
aware Of the vast periods of time TO
which 1t bears witness. In the first place,
we are all apt to overlook the evidence
attesting the vast age of the earth. But
in even more marked degree we overlook,
int no roIo no Gil NH ch
how much of the earths record has been
destroyed.
AS to the former point we may well
marvel, when we consider how clearly our
mountain and valleys, our hills and
dales, even our knobs and ravines, an
nounce the amazing antiquity of the
earth's crust, that SO few seem to appre-
ciate the lesson. Along sea-shore and
rivershore-nay, along roads and rail
way cuttings-are the stgns(so plain and
obvious that he who runs, even at rail
way speed, may ready of tens and hun
dreds of thousands of years of past
earth-life. Yet for one who notices them
hundreds are blind to their significance.
To the student of geology alone, no
doubt, it is given to read the lesson in all
it's details. Even he can only catch the
general significance OF those details. The
geologist alone can say, this lawyer speaks
of hundreds of thousands of years, that
formation of millions that series OF strata
of many millions Of years. But no one
sees, and thinks of what he sees, can fail
to recognize clear evidence of hundreds
of thousands of years in the earth's crust,
even as disclosed to the least scientific
observer. The beetling crag speaks in
its weather-worn face of tens of thou
sands Of years to the geologist, for he
knows how slowly the work of denudation
proceeds, and how long it must have re-
CURED to carve that rugged mass into the
form we see. Yet any ordinary observer
who thinks little can see that thousands
of years Of weather-work and sea-work
are recorded there. Looking little
closer he sees that the rock thus
worn away is formed by layers,
which, manifestly were themselves the
products of denuding forces, for he can
see in them sand and pebbles and sea-
shells. Recognizing the height of the
cliff, and therefore the del th of the
originally deposited layers, he sees that
tens of thousands of years must have been
required for the deposition of all that |
mass of rLdimentary matter. Perhaps |
the geologist, better acquainted with the |
dreds of thousands of years represented |
by that work of deposition. But the or
binary observer, even in his first general /
view of the cliffs structure, has enough |
to impress his mind with the sense OF
waists time-intervals. Looking closes,
though he may not know even the bare |
name of the substances ne sees, ne rec
ognizes yet stronger evidence of the past
of rnr In
the masses imbedded in the layers of the |
cliff before him some which manifestlh
we're broken off from shores formed of |
materials deposited, layer by layer, in re-
moter periods STILL His thoughts rise
from tens TO hundreds of thousands of
years, and he is prepared to accept the
teachings of geology, that many layers Of
the earth's crust speak of periods to be
measured by millions and even tens of
millions of years. So much is suggested
by a walk along the sea-shore; SO much
might be gathered during the progress
of railroad journey. The thoughtful
mind will doubtless seek fuller informa-
ton, and SO be led to study the amazing
story of tie earth as geologists are now
able to tell il. But even the most thought
ess, or imagine, must be impressed by
'hese more obvious teachings.
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