New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-11-19

another great error too. He held that basalt hac
not been poured out Of volcanic craters In
fluid state but had been deposited from the
sea. like the distinctivey stratifed rocks
Curiousy enough II from two OF Werner''
own pupils D'Aubisson and Won Buch. more
particularly the latter. that these Ideas received
their first great check. Won Buch explored
! with singular enthusiasm. nearly every square
mile of Europe and made special study OF
volcanoes, live and extinct. But he ignores the
work done by Demarest in ascertaining the
origin of basat, in a manner that seriously
| detracts from his own glory.
Werner was also antagonlzed, In at least one
! important matter by James Hutton NtZ6-
| 90 who held that the granite. though oc-
| cupying a position pretty low down In the
series Geographically. was a comparatively
young rock, and that 1t was product OF ig-
neous, not aqueous action. and was forced up
ward from below through various assures and
crevices which occurred from time to time. He
also suspected that certain early formations
were somewhat modified in character by the
| heat given off by intruded matter. He thus laid
! the foundations of Lyells theory OF metamor-
| pho rocks Furthermore. Hutton observed
I that while stratum after stratum Of secondary
| formations lay parallel with each other even
when folded and contorted, there were broken
| underlying rocks TO whose irregular surface
these upper layers did not conform. The line
OF "unconformabty." therefore. indicated to
him the division between the era OF stratihcation
and more ancient time.
In the earlier stratfed rocks Hutton saw so
much material, sand and silt, which was evil
IDENTITY the detritus Of earlier continents. but
had been rearranged at the bottom OF the sea.
that he realized, none OF his predecessors had
done. the enormous erosion OF primeval land by
rain and river which had taken place. There,
indeed. were the ruins Of much earlier world
that had been slowly washed away. This great
Scotch philosopher did not grasp the great fact
that the shrinkage of the earths crust must
necessarily wrinkle IT and cause all upifts and
depressons. past and present. OF which he saw
evidence. He was pretty much in the dark
to the nature Of the force which had been a.
work there. He conhiert. however that
1t had operated on n grand scale. chiefly from
below, and that II sufficiently explained the dis
covery Of marine fossils three miles above
sea level without calling into play Werners
universal ocean.
There have been two principal methods OF
studying the differences between and the order
Of. the rocks one has related to their
deals with the organic remains contained in the
various layers and Is biological. Not only was
France foremost in the former inquiry. but she
also led of in the latter AS early as 1719 the
Able Giraud- Souave presented paper to the
Royal Academy of Science in Paris dividing the
calcareous rocks Of Vivrais into five classes. dis
tinguished by the species OF shells which they
yielded. Then came the great anatomist Cuvier
Q1G9-1S32) and his friend and associate Bron-
g!art Q770-lS40. Cooperating during the clos
ing years Of the eighteenth century and the ear
Her ones Of the nineteenth, they classified the
fossils OF all the rocks OF the Tertiary forma-
ton In the Paris basin. They identified only
fifty species. but they covered wide field and
pursued thoroughly systematic methods. Their
work was subsequently corrected and extended
by ACKNOWLEDGING, j. J. DOmallus dial
10y. Between 1874 and 1901 William Smith. a
young English surveyor who was intrusted with
many canal projects. made n careful examina-
ton OF the various formations OF his own coun-
try. with special reference 10 the fossils: and
he was thus enabled to produce q remarkable
stratigraphical chart OF the secondary rocks.
Subsequently he ampllfled this work and in con-
sequence Of It's accuracy and scope he has since
been known as the father Of English geology"
For years he struggled with poverty. but in 1892
ne received pension Of 100. which enabled him
to live in comparative comfort for the rest Of
his days
1t now remained to explore the regions below
the "Old Red Sandstone" This was in some re-
spects a more difficult undertaking than Cuvier's
or Smiths. Murchison entered upon this task
in Wales, In 1881. having had some previous ex-
perience IN other geological researches. Within
four months he traced from the mouth Of the
Viva IN IT
under the sandstone. and that bore an entirely
distinct set OF fossils. To this formation he gave
the name OF "Silurian" Then Murchison's
friend and quondam associate, Sedg1yick went n
step further and explored what seemed to be
still older rocks. which he called the Cam
brian" Subsequ snty however. doubt arose as
to the existence Of any definite boundary be-
tween them. and an unhappy controversy re-
suited. The discovery Of strata corresponding
to the Cambrian over In Bohemia and the ind
Ing OF other strata along the Rhine allied to
peculiar post-Surian formations In Devonshire
interesting extensions of the work OF Muir
Gibson and Sedgwck
The three greatest contributions to modern
geology, In Sir Archibalds judgment are Agas-
sizs splendid development, from his study Of
Alpine glaciers, Of the theory that northern Eu-
rope was once covered by vast icesheet; the
art OF grinding and mounting thin layers Of rock
that they can be studied under a microscope.
devised by Nicol. and Darwin's contention that
the geological record Of life is exceedingly i'm
perfect. Graceful homage Is paid, in the clos
ing chapter Of this book. to Lyell, as a critic
and exponent OF his contemporaries views and
also to those pioneers Of American geology
William Edmond Logan and w. Mcclure
----s----
mn
Tho trial Of william Woodward. alias ''Big Haw-
Cd