Condon globe. (Condon, Gilliam Co., Or.) 189?-1919, 1904-05-05
~ ,eland Of the penhndv n

NaNtttAds VI hAN NoNNNN sA0
scum, Yale University, has paper In,
he American Journal of Science that
attracting much attention among
scientific workers, lie has collected
many facts, most OF them revealed by
geological science, to show the prob
ability that the origin of life occurred
n the polar regions, and also that
he climate changes which AFFECT life
Increase toward the poles, and there
ore that polar influences have had
uuch more to do with dlfterentlating
lie into many forms than equatorial
influences.
As the continents are grouped
around the north pole, 1t is reasonable
to suppose that the northern circum-
polar area has been, ever since the
Tine OF the older forms Of life found
n the paleozolc rocks, the main center
from which animal and plant life have
radiated. and Mr. Wieland adduces
much evidence to show that this the
ory is correct These deductions are
NY no means news, but they have never
erore been fortified In one composition
by so large an array of testimony as
that which Mr.. Wieland has collected
in his careful paper
The fundamental idea on which this
theory Of the origin OF life is based
is not difficult to understand, Some
conditions Of stability must have been
necessary to the beginnings and per
1etuation of plant and animal life. II
he globe was once molten. as phys
icists from Kant and La Place to kel-
vim have declared. lunar tides Of tre-
nendous power must have been pro"
duced at the equator, though they were
weak at the poles. Sufficient cruStal
liability to make hot water life pos
>ible must have first appeared at the
1oles. A great interval of time must
have elapsed between the first appear
ance of crustal stability at the poles
and similar conditions at the equator,
BILE to resist the enormous attractive
0ower of the moon and SUM- 1t may
lave taken 100000 years for thH
emperature and stability necessary
ven to hot water life to move slowly,
rom the poles to the equator. Thus
he conditions favorable to life must
rst have appeared i'll the polar re-
lions.
Ii Is we'll known that the deep oceans
and the continents have occupied rela-
lively their present position far back
in geological times, and the great an
tiquity Of the principal elements of life
N the oceanic islands testlfes to the
difficulty of dispensing the higher tyres
of life across ocean barriers and the
almost impossibility Of such dispersion
of the vcrtebrates.
But all evidence points to the for
ner existence Of wide land routes be-
ween the northern polar areas and the
.reat land masses to the south, and
he facts of vertebrate distribution In
he northern hemisphere in mesozoic
nd tertiary times can be satisfactorily
xplained only on the hypothesis OF
common polar origin Of the principal
ancestral stocks, which then dispersed
outward from the polar area and
spread over America and Eurasia.
This is very brief statement OF
the hypothesis which the writer fortl-
lies by voluminous quotations from the
record the rocks have preserved. The
reader is referred to Mr.. Wieland's pa
per for the evidence that the rich veg
citation of the various horizons repre-
Sented within the arctic area forms the
original source of most of the plant
families that we know, and that as we
proceed farther south we find in the
rocks forms of life that are now preva-
lent on the surface nearer the equator
The climate and the consequent life
which existed in the Dakotas and Wy
oming in the eocene period were those
that are now found in Florida.-New
York Sun.