The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-08
UNIVERSITY LECTURE.
DIR. Taimase on the Work of Air
and Water.

DIR. Taimase on the Work of Air
and Water.
DR.. James E. Talmage closed his series
of lectures at the university last even
ing, his subject being 1.-The Geological
Work of Air and Water" The hall was
crowded. and the lecture was listened to
with close attention.
The doctor first proceeded to show to
the audience how large a field was COW
cred by his subject, and said that as it
would take the intellect of giant to di-
gest all of the features, he would take
only one OF the courses and then the
dessert. The course was the chemical and
physico-chemicai effects of air and water,
and the dessert would be the diagrams
and stereopticon views. Of which latter
there we're over sixty in number.
The views principally shown were pho
tographS OF the grand canyons and plat
eaus Of Utah and Arizona. The unscien-
tific person might think that air and
water could not do much in forming the
soil Of this earth. They generally look
for volcanic outbursts, earthquakes or
explosions of some kind or other This
sort of disturbance is called a catas-
trophe. and is the reception and not the
rule. But for the deepening of chasms,
or the forming Of hiils, we must look to
the slow but sure work of the wind and
rushing waters.
Sand laden winds are very destructive
and every small grain of sand driven
squarely against a cliff by the wind, is
like bullet striking the cliff, and surely
but silently wearing it away.
Frost is one of the powers of air and is
d geological agent of very great power.
We all know that if an iron shell is filled
with water and allowed to freeze, the
shell will burst. And if when the water
gets in the fissure Of rock and freezes,
the rock will burst and thus prepare it
IL
sell Tor more rapid disintegration: Our
canyons show tie talus or debris of such
rocksc al the foot of almost every cliff in
the springtime.
Soil is but disintegrated rock, and If
examined in place of its formation, it
may show complete graduation between
the solid rock beneath, through rotten or
partially diSinteSrated stone to the soil
and subsoil above. Rivers produce great
changes in geological structures, and in
the topography of the country through
incessant erosion. Until the river has
reached it's base level it continues to cut;
if carrie dbelow its base level, as for in
stance by sinking crust movement it
deposits. Both air and water produce two
distinct kinds of Notwithstanding
and constructive. The finely divided ma
terial produced by wind action or by
river erosion is carried and deposited at
some other place. Some of the islands of
the sea are remnants of former corti-
nents; others are built up by the deposit
ton OF sediment carried by currents or
heaped up by waves. Our own regions
furnish the most stupendous examples
of erosion known to the world. The plat
eau region and particularly the Grand
canyon district reveal to US in their wild
grandeur the almost inconcefvable power
of air and water cutting and sculptur-
represents to us geologi - dtssections; the
tissures and ibres asa laid bare.
On Tuesday, Prof Geo. q Marshall
will give the second lecture of his
course. The Drama; Shakespeare. viii
be the subject. Next Friday, Prof Jos.
II. Kingsbury will talk on 1.-The Chemis-
try of the Air" His lecture will be illus
trated by experiments with chemicals