Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-02-01
NOW EARTH HAS BEEN SHAPED,



tention to n marked degree on placer
and vein formations, These are popu-
larry conspicuous now because they
constitute the sources whence the
worlds supply Of virgin gold has been
drawn during the past half century.
They are however, of scientific intt.-
est also, as rcvclators of some OF the
methods which nature has employed
and some OF the forces which she has
invoked in shaping the physical char
acteristcs Of the earth.
1t has been assumed by n process of
reasoning based upon the testimony
OF the rocks and the telescope study
of other planets In the solar system,
and nebulous forms lying outside Of IL
in immeasurable space, that the earth
was once truly without form and
void" and that It has emerged from
the gaseous and molten condition In
which II is believed many other worlds
in the ornament now are; that ii has
reached Its present state through
gradual process of cooling. But once
the earth took upon itself form and
ceased to be in the scriptural deiin'
ton void" euhtler agents than those
enlisted in the operation of condcns-
ing II gaseous substance into solid
body and converting that superheated
solid into an inhabitable globe came
into play. There is no part OF the
world so fruitful in evidence of what
tnpSt SuDllt HStNtS uIt lltN HdNf IN
later geological ages been active in
shaping the earth's surface as Is the
Pacific Coast.
The eruptive forces which nature
called into play when the dry land
appeared above the waters which
We're under the armament" are In evil
dence in the great ranges whose tilted
strata are now exposed In this state
at an altitude of nearly fifteen thou
sand feet above the level of the sea.
No field has yet been discovered which
has yielded so bountifully to the
searching geologist the evidences OF
natures work and natures methods
in world-making and world-buiding.
II shows the wonderful power which
fire. wind ice and water have exerted
In producing the present topography
of the earth.
Agassiz traced with the greatest
care the course OF the ice masses that
plowed their way at some period or
periods In the worlds history from
the North Pole over the British isles
and the north of Europe. almost to the
shores of the Mediterranean sea. TAX
ing his cue from this testimony which
Agasslz wrung from the European
rocks. John Muir searched the Sierra
for evidence of the forces nature had
used in creating the great gorges on
the TANKS of the range aud in shaping
its impressive peaks. Whitney had
previously assumed that these gorges
were the result of an eruptive force.
Muir followed the track of the glacier
from It's source at the summit of the
range to the wreckage which 1t left us
evidence of its power In the valley be-
low According to this evidence the
great ice-plow evolved from the eter-
nal SHOWS In the higher Sierra is re-
sponsible for the excavation of the
great gorees. the rounding OF the ele-
waited domes overlooking them and the
creation of the floor of the great val
ley skirtng the foot of the range out
of the debris.
The gold placers and the gold-bear-
ing lodges of California testify very
plainly to the elements that have been
from time immemorial shaping the
face of the earth. Whetaher the deep
canyons that seam the western flank
of the Sierra and constitute the beds
of the present watercourses were made
by Ice or water, the erosion which
formed the auriferous deposits illling
the beds of the so-called dead rivers
bears evidence of the action of both ice
and water, while the eruptive forces
OF nature are again manifest In the
lava cap which at one time seems to
have covered the land from the CO.
lumbia river to the Tehachapi range.
1t Is assumed by one school of sclen-
lists that water has been the sole ele-
ment at work In shaping the present
river beds and that the floor of the
Sacramento valley has been formed by
the debris which the foods brought
with them. thus converting what was
once an inland sea into n fertile plain.
Another school attributes the carving
out of the canyons to glacial action.
Ice and water are both at work to-
day, and they have been for geological
ages unnumbered. In shaping the
earth's topography. One is quite M
effective as the other The former Is
hA ,,f
the Northwest Territory as 1t may have
ground the California canyons;t the lat
ter element Is showing It's power in
every stream that descends tn the sea
Gelke determined by a careful compu-
tntion the croslve power OF water and
the time consumed by certain rivers In
removing one foot of rock from the gem
eral surface of their basin. The river
Danube thus consumes c. SAG years In the
operation; the Mississippi, 5000; the
NTH, 4,I23; the Ganges,2 3hS, the Rhone,
l,b2S; the Hoang-lio. AGA. and the Pc
729 years. The erosive power OF flow
Ing water II will be readily observed.
must he quite as great II not greater
than the grinding force exerted by the
slow-movlng glacier, no matter how
great pressure the mas NAV bring
10 bear on the yielding rocks. Streams
are thus active agents in the carving Of
valleys out of the great ranges, In the
cutting up OF continents into islands
ana In the final wearing down of these
islands so that they finally disappear
altogether in the sea. II is not niNays
necessary. therefore, In considering the
history of Notwithstanding to account for
the disappearance of continent nv
such cataclysm as Is supposed to have
overwhelmed Atlantis or DESTROYED In
our own time the island of Krakaton.
Never rainstorm occurs in CalIror-
MIA but what the birth of new valleys
" witnessed in the burrows cut by tho
drainage on every mountain side aud
these VIII In time as surely change the
aspect of the landscape and the con
tour of the land MS the present land
scarc and topography have been
evolved from some former condition on
tirely different from the one now ex-
listing.
Even the currents OF air are active
world-shapers. The entire coast line of
California has been shaped by the
action of the prevailing winds upor
the waves Of the Pacific ocean which
increasingly heat against the land.
slowly but surely wearing Il away. In
the Mojave and Colorado deserts the
power OF the wind in the shaping Of the
local topography is very marked Tho
soft sandstones of the ranges bordering
on them and the isolated peaks lifted
here and there in the heart of them
have been Worn by the wind into fam
tastic forms, and the ruins Of It's own
creation-the fine grains eruded by II
from the rocbs-are piled by II into
a