The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-27
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involved in their making; and it is by no
means certain that the minor dislocations
oI our own days are not the beginnings Of
more nomentous episodes of the future.
All the main mountain masses of the globe
nave been formed in association with earth
movements; the crust has been tossed
and twirled and billowed up TO make t6a
great ridges which are the mountain back
DoneS-backbones which, as in the case Of
OF miles IN length, or, like that of the GEN.
tral Aslatic chain, tower the better part OF
SIX miles into the air. In the struggle OF
TINS making the rocks have been rent
twisted and fractured, and whole mountain
puItresses have been moved or sheared
bodily, for miles in a stretch over the
shoulders" of their predecessors Of the
land; others have been turned over on their
Mountain making has been most ener-
getlcally carried on until a comparatively
recent period of geological time, and the
!ater mountains formed were of magni~
Jude that could easily be compared with
those OF the earliest OF which geology gives
record. Witness the Hiuaalayas. which
We're reared aioft perhaps not more than
a million years ago-poSsibly at a time
much less distant-the Alps the Andes
and the Rockies of much the same epoch.
mountains are being constructed in our
own days, but their Slow manufacture pre-
70 make US IN most cases cognizant of their
being and formation. 1t was a clear per-
ception which permitted an Austrian geol-
oglst Prof Edward Suess, to recognize
that what the earth was largely engaged
in doing at the present time was the re-
verse, of mountain making, although yet
closely associated with that process. 1t is.
plainly speaking, falling to pieces within
itself, slice after slice section after sec
acquiring positions nearer and nearer TO
the planetary center.
Not only at this time but probably at
all times, has this action been taking place,
and not in one continent alone, but in all
continents has this peculiar work of dis
memberment been adjusting itself. Again,
faces have felt the force of this extraor-
binary partitioning which has left but
tresses and alternating sunken areas 70
mark out the existing relief of the entire
terrestrial surface.
The earth is gently crumbling, and seem
ingly it has been so crumbling from the
time of the first formation. The deep
scattered pits of the surface are evidences
of this, the ASSOCIATED parts of archipel-
agees the same. In the great trough OF the
Mediterranean we have a fallen block. or
the combination of a. number of FALLEN
blocks, measuring the better part OF 1000
miles in length and descending TO depths
of 10000 and 1900 feet.
The Gulf of Mexico seemingly presents
us with a counterpart of the same struc-
ture, and in the broken islands which mark
its eastern boundary-themselves the re-
manning fragmented parts of the great
Andean system of mountains which swept
northeastward through the South Ameri-
can continent-we have the analogues OF
islets which. as the Grecian archipelago,
dot the eastern Mediterranean, and testify
to the former existence' Of a continuous
continental area.
The narrow basin of the Red sea is an
other such sunken trough, the gulf of Cal
ifornia still another, and perhaps also the
deep estuary of the st. Lawrence river.
The depression of the Dead sea and OF
the River Jordan speak the same history.
as does, on the American side, the famous
valley of the Yosemite, with it's steeply
faced and pitching rocks rising in impos-
ing grandeur thousands Of feet, as the rlft
walls of the sunken chasm.
lF oil F-lysgE Ia n loo ~
none equals in interest that which has
latterly been described from the heart OF
" Gregory 1l ~ Of the the British Musuem- has
given the name of the Great Rift valley.