The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-15
GEOLOGY IN ITS
RELATION TO COMMERCE.
Comparative Studies of Two Cen
turtles

resources OF country IDdn IS any DINER
branch of natural science. Upon the
raw materials furnished by mining and
agriculture ali forms OF manufacturing
and commercial industry are primarily
Dased, and with both these funda-
menIals geology is ineXtFicably IN
vowed. Inc SCIENCE has therefore, both
its applied and It's purely scIenJihc as
poets, and IL IS necessary 10 appreciate
It's dual character in order 10 esIab-
iish correct perspective IN comparing
its condition in the year 1870 with UnaJ
in the year 1870. Ine importance Oh
this appreciation lies in the tact tAat
in its application to industrial needs
geology mas claims TO government sup
port, and it is by the aid OF national
and state geological surveys that the
recent great advances in the science
have been made possible
/ By the close OF the eighteenth century
+ the larger facts in the structure OF the
globe were familiar 10 all men Of
I science who had given them attention.
/ Mines had been IN operation tor 1000
/ years and more, and had been conduct
/ ed with much intelligence for several
I centuries. 1T was evident TO all ObSerV-
ers that disturbances OF the eartn's
crust had taken place, that folds, faults
and joints had resulted, and that the
/ cracks had, in many cases, been filed
with later minerals. Rocks We're known
/ to be of both Sedinentary and of igne-
I Gus origin. 1t was well appreciated
! that some were older than others, but
the classificatiOns into time series We're
very incomplete, especially Tor the pa-e-
OzOic strata. In the related depart
ment of mineralOgy the cOmmoner
( species had been Identified and named
: and considerable information was cur
I rent regarding their chemical COmpo-
sition. Fossils had been long known,
and had been correctly interpreted as
the remains of the former organisms.
/ In the Paris basin several observers
( had shown that the fossils followed one
: another in sequence, and were. within
limits, characteristic Of particular
strata and useful for their iden,ificati. n
/ but this knowledge was restricted to a
very few savants. In the opening years
! of the present century it was made
/ generally available in France by Gu
vieT and Brogniart and was develoDed
quite independently by William Smith
in England. In the closing days of the
/ eighteenth century, however, most men
interested in this branch were appar-
emily not aware of the Importance, or,
in fact of the existence, of these rela-
lions.
In the eighteenth century only a
/
logically described, and that with a
very imperfect scientific vocabulary.
France, Germany, Italy, Russia and
England had received considerable at
( tentiOn, but the rest Of the world re-
NAMED for the future. The terra in
cognita is indeed by no means ex-
hauSted even today, but 100 years ago
the two Americas, Asia, Africa and
Australia can hardly be said 10 have
& nrcoFnurfrn1 n %
is concerned. Governmental surveys
had scarcely begun. The science ad-
Yanced by individual effort. which often
taxed the means of the investigator TO
the breaking point. Scientists were
also largely Influenced by the meta
physical tendencies of their own and
previous centuries. They had not alto
gether OutgroWn earlier habits of
thought, induced by older methods of
education.
All this being true, it was natural
that writer's on geology during this
period developed in their scientific work
tendencies to speculative systems. To
the creation of hypothesis, to grand
concentrations and to the formulation
OF theoretical views with which they
sought to make nature conform They
. exhibit all the characteristics of half
Informed minds. The soil was fertile
and seeds had been sOwn. but much OF
the resulting vegetation proved to be
weeds, and Of necessity had to be cut
down and destroyed. OF this character
were the extreme views of the Neptun-
lists, of the Plutonists and in the years
soon after 1900 of the searchers after a
so-called orid-hyoothesis. OF them
all the NeDtUniStS were the most i'm
portant and in some respects the most
unfortunate in their influence. 1t re
{ CURED many years and a hard struggle
with an insidious foe TO rid geological
thought OF their mistaken conceptions
! and doctrines.
Early in the present century a reac.
ton set in. Hypothesis were abandoned
p for observation and record. Geological
societies and geological sections in sci
entiflc societies of a more general ma,
ture were established and archives o.
record We're provided. Governmental
geological surveys found favor and b.
the end Of the fifth decade were or hae
been in operation in almost all TIL
more advanced states and countries
Their systematic work and their re
/ ports from trained observers. directed
by single responsible head sooI
placed at command a vast amount o
information of which the fathers in tn
, science had no conception. Theoretical
= views more and more grew to be base,
on sound evidence and to be WORTH
l of acceptance by conservative students
Besides the printed reports the surveys
have provided biologists at large witt
/ maps both Typographical and geologic
l al, and before the admiring and almos
E bewildering gaze of the onIooker hav.
unrolled the geological panorama witt
! a richness and fullness not dreamed o
at the close of the last century
, Under a few topics it is possible (,
sum up the chief subjects in which
! 1900 shows the greatest advance owe
t 1900
The most ancient rocks are recog
nized now to be igneous in their ma
ture and when they possess a foliatfol
which suggests sedinentary bedding /
; is thought to be due to mechanical
! crushing and shearing. The foliate,
. structure h9d formerly led many Il
= believe i. ir sedimentary Origin. o,
I the otho q, the development of re
/ liable S OF observation of phe
} nOmen e field and the inteTpre
2 tatiOn r. mineralogical and chem
ical cor tiOn of crystalline rocks il
the laf Dry have made possible
vast adys see in cur knowledge of thos
elusive members of the earth's crus
I which are usually described as met
/ amorphic.' Not alone in appreciatin
G the igneous nature of some but Il
q demonstrating the sedimentary natur
e of others and in working out the struc
, ture of many complex areas, such a
: the Alps, the Scottish highlands an
a the Lake Superior region, have W
4 gained outposts far in advance of thos
e held in the year 1900. Today we re
gard these problems as among the mos
attractive of the science. although thei
: difficulty is not belittled
r When the strata of the older fossil
ferrous periods. i. G., those constitutin
!; the paleozoic era. are considered. tn
Z advance in knowledge is simply aston
. ishing. The biologists of the last cen