East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1913-07-16
By THE SCISSORS
THE AGE OF THE EARTH.
indianapolis News.)

indianapolis News.)
To impatient and hurried people it
may be soothing 10 devote a little time
10 thoughts about the age OF the earth.
Ones own life span must seem insig<
nificant as against that vastness, yet
there IS something comforting in sink
ing intosthe sense OF eternity that it
suggests. -GeOlOgists speak Of mil
lions OF years, hardly ever less than
seventy-fiye millions as the age OF
the globe says Charles Schuchert.
in The Yale Review. "and yet since
radium has been discovered the ply
sicians tell US that we must multiply
these figures at least by 10, while
before this discovery they could not
allow Us more than twenty five mil
lions Of years since the earth began
10 have water-Iaid rocks Even so.
as mortals we appear to be dealing
with eternity and yet in our imagi-
nation we thing OF the endless similar
cycles preceding the one through
which the sun and the earth have
passed
Climates OF the Past" is the title
OF the article which is a piece of
weather talk on a stupendous scale
We know something about weather
changes in a small way. The earth's
climate has been somewhat tickle, too
but certain seasons of it have been
comparatively stable. I'VE may say
that the earth's climate through mill
lions OF years is warm and equable,"
says the article in its conclusion, ZAP
paTently completely devoid of win
ter. At these times crustal alterations
are but slight At irregular intervals,
however, great ranges of mountains
are thrown up, air currents are re-
Elected, cooled and dried. continents
are united by narrow land bridges and
the flow OF warm water toward the
polar regl- - is either altered or
completely t-~red. with the conse-
quence that g at changes in climate
take place. These are the critical
periods Of the organic life of the
world. Old and established stocks
that have become specialized, bizarre
or huge in body, or dominant over
their smaller associates. vanish at
such times Of change ana stress.
Small and obscure races rise TO
ascendancy, become the rulers of their
environment for a long time. but in
( the end history repeats itself and the
I favored ones give way to those of still
greater adaptability. individuals and
4 families run their course. and vanish
I into the air and the earth from which
/ they come. Our mundane sphere VIII
! eventually cease to receive the vital
| izing influence of the suns rays and
! the earth will be dead. Finally, even
/ the sun itself seems destined to cease
as such, for in some future eternity 1t
may also become cold. collide with an
other similar body, and by this i'm
| pact give rise to a spiral nebula. Ma
ture Is never wholly at rest; change,
ceaseless change, is the law of the uni
( verse.
THE bind like a flash leaps
| through the millions Of miles of space
and reveals to US the existence of
countless suns. nebulae, and dary orbs
But when this same mind. born of two
ancestral cells and by their union
/ started on its complex development of
comprehension and imagination. ceas-
/ es to be--what then? We are awe
stricken. for here we stand helpless
before the Great Unknowable."