Year: 1876

Prof. Huxley, in his recent address at
Nashville, said: know it is thought
very often that men of science are in the
habit of drawing largely from their
imagination, but it is really not so. The
most sober, careful consideration of
facts forces upon you more and more
determindedly the conviction that the
theory respecting which we have this
archaeological evidence of a period of
the past history of the worlds of dur
alton which, in comparison with our
human standard, may be regarded as
almost absolutely infinite. Take, for
example, the case of the cataract OF
Niagara, where / have been recently
spending some time, so that | might fill
myself with the grandeur and beauty of
that extraordinary phenomenon; it is
quite easy to see that the Niagara Xiv
er has formed its own valley, has cut its
way back through the plateau of rock
from which it falls for some six miles.
There is not the slightest
difficulty in seeing that. The great cliff
from which it tumbles is formed of two
kinds of rock-hard rock at the top and
soft rock underneath. The water un-
dermines the soft rock below, when the
solid stratum above falls over. You
can trace the gradual excavation of
that valley for six miles from that mar
velous bluff, which, from Proctor's
monument, overlooks the plain of On
tario. Now, the rate at which that
work is going on has not yet been posi-
lively ascertained, but we may be per-
fectly certain q am now speaking
largely within limits) that that work of
cutting back does not go on at the rate
of a yard in year. We have six miles
of such cutting, which will bring you
to period of 10000 years for the cut
ting back of Niagara alone. 1t is an
immaterial matter to me how many
years it takes, but it would be nearer
probability, much nearer the truth, if
had said three or four times that
amount.


What relations does period of that
kind bear to the vast duration expressed
by these vast ledges of strata which
form the globe? We are people curl
Gus enoug h to form very distinct cal
culation of this. The sides of the ra-
vine through which Niagara is cutting
its way are formed by masses of alluvi-
al matter, which must be older than the
river which has cut through it. While
in that alluvial matter you find the re-
mains of shell-6sh, undistinguishable
from those which now inhabit the lake,
and along with them you tind--as has
been found-the teeth of the mastodOn,
which we know from abundant evidence
was an inhabitant of the continent of
North America at q comparatively re-
cent period, the very last step Of that
long series of changes, of which the
limestone, upon which you are now
standing, indicates one Of the older
ones.


Thus it follows that the whole work
of Niagara occupies one period OF this
vast duration. In relation to our dura-
tion of time, that 10000 years, or what
ever else it may have been, is but an in
finitesimal fragment of time, so far as
the great phenomena of the globe are
concerned. During that vast time the
population of the globe has undergone
a slow, constant and gradual change,
one species giving way to another. We
have passed by slow and gradual meth
DDS, without vast and sudden changes,
into that state of things which obtain at
present. | need not say that this view
of the past history of the globe is very
different one from that which is COM
monty taken. 1t is so widely different
that it is absolutely impossible to affect
any kind of community, any kind of
parallel, far less any sort of recOncilia-
ton, between these two. One of these
must be true. The other is not.