The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1906-09-27
The =. BOrth~viCk =. Theory
osD
BY E. DAWSON.
BY E. c. DAWSON.

his front door at 9.14 a. M, one mo-
ment ahead of scheduled time. This
enabled him to collect scrap of
paper from his lawn and inter it de-
Gently in a bed of variegated X ives
Sallen from tho naples bordering the
roadway. The sharp October breeze
exhumed it almost before his back
was turned, and his housekeeper,
watching from an upper window, OBJ
Ierved tina men with vast amount
OF brain showed an extraordinary
want of common sense.
Professor Borthwick-with the al
phabet transposed after his name
walked to the end of the block and
turned the corner that brought the
buildings of the Canadian Geological
Survey into view. For generation
past he had been one of the depart
ment's shining lights; over and above
all, he was the Borthwick Theory.
1t was impossible, in scientific cir
cles, to discuss the pre-glacial period
in Polar regions without reference to
the Borthwick Theory. 1t permeated
the calculations of two decades of
biologists as inevitably as the knowl-
edge that certain fossils were char
acteristic of certain horizons. The
world over the Theory was discussed
and quoted, argued and dissented
from. Of course, there was dissen-
sion-the very magnitude of the
theme courted criticism from it's bear
ing upon vast economic possibilities
in the Northwest provinces, as yet
but partially explored. Not that Pro-
fessor Borthwick concerned himself
intimately with economic questions;
his interests were centred in the
course of events before Man was.
His critics, also the possessors of
cometlike alphabetical tails, were the
members of other surveys; they dis
puted the Borthwick Theory in the
ACADEMIC journals, and fenced Pro-
feSsor Borthwick at international
cong esses.
Meanwhile, the scientific world, APP
proving and dissentient, waited COM
placently; men to whom a thousand
years were as a day, geologically
speaking, expected to wait; even the
optimists scarcely supposed that Pro-
lessor Borthwick would have the luck
to personally establish his claim to
posterity.
The Theory had it's origin in a
handful of obscure fossils collected
by the professor IN early manhood,
when field instructions had taken
him, one of band of pioneers, into
unexplored r --ions bordering upon
the Arctic.
Years passed, and each season
found him pursuing his Investigations
with patient, answering energy;
those untrodden lands became divi-
sions, the divisions districts; widea-
wake prospectors began to follow. in
the Geologicals Surveys footsteps:
Professor Borthwick continued to col
iect fossils in summer and determine
them in winter, anG slowly but sure
iy his researches strengthened his
convictions.
Borthwick on Northwestern geology
attained Importance in the eyes OF
r. department, his views passed, in
process of time, to wider acceptance
as DR.. Borthwick's Theories, and
finally attained impressive, singular
and international significance as the
Borthwick Theory.
The Professor aged with the
Theory; younger men went into the
field, able-where he was now un-
able Withstand the hardships en-
tailed; he remained in his labora-
tory, and en- the evidences of their re-
searches continued to deduce and es-
tablish the Theory, link by link.
Year by year he hoped for the con-
elusive results that would blazen it
on times records as incontrovertible
fact.
Thus, the autumn was a season of
paramount Importance to him, since
1t heralded the return Of the field
staff and the possibility that the
Northwest had yielded the clews he
needed.
A sharp gust of wind swirled his
coat tails; the Professor folded the
garment closer without annoyance; a
touch of frost in the air, and clear
sunshine induced a physical sense of
wellbeing that demanded analysis.
together with the opposite deduction
that it was possible to feel otherwise.
He paused on the steps of the sur
vey with a dawning sense of misgiv-
Ing. Suppose that, in place of con-
firmatory evidence, the seasons work
served to weaken the foundations of
the Theory, or in any way suggested
the possibility of his critics being
right and he wrong. Even in the
home survey there were men who
dc1bted-youths of thirty-five and
forty who based their arguments on
experience that, compared with Pro-
lessor Borthwick's, was Insignificant.
Some of them had theories of their
own, and toward these he exercised
the courtesy and tolerance becoming
in a man who had forgotten more
than they ever knew. For the
Theory, SO far as it went, was cir
substantially proved even as the
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