The Creation of God, Jacob Hartmann [e manga reader TXT] 📗
- Author: Jacob Hartmann
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When geologists examine the earth’s crust, they usually commence with the surface on which we live, and search downwards as far as possible. Lyell constructed a tabular view of the fossiliferous strata.
It must be borne in mind that we have no other methods of ascertaining the truth than by close observation, making diligent search, in order to discover what this earth’s crust is made of. We have no supernatural facilities to give us information, and we are very certain there never were any. What information we are reckoned to have, handed down by our antiquated barbarian forefathers, is of a different nature. It refers—briefly stated—to the conduct of Man, the manner in which he shall act as an individual, or collectively as a community; including a great number of what are considered now theatrical or mountebank ceremonies, fancy customs, sacrifices, and a repetition of certain phrases, ordinarily called prayers, accompanied by illustrative images and pictures, and movements of body—fantastic symbols and devices created and prescribed by man.
Having no other means of ascertaining facts, man was naturally compelled to search for testimony in the earth’s crust—to discover what it is composed of; the kind of material; how it was formed; the time it took to form; the period that elapsed between formations; how the layers or strata were superposed one upon another; what substances were found in them; where organic life was first found; what it consisted of; when man first appeared. By examining this table we get a glimpse of the true state of things. This shows the order of superposition, or chronological succession, of the principal European groups:
I. Post-Tertiary. A. Post-Pliocene.
Periods and Groups.
1. Recent. Peat mosses, shell marls, with bones of land animals, human remains and works of art. Newer parts of modern deltas and coral reefs.
2. Post-Pliocene. Clay, marl, volcanic trap. All the shell of living specimens. No human remains or works of art. Bones of quadrupeds, partly of extinct species.
II. Tertiary. B. Pliocene.
3. Newer Pliocene. Boulder formation. Cavern formation, or Pleistocene. Three-fourths of fossil shells of extinct species. A majority of the mammals extinct; but the genera corresponding with those now surviving in the same great geographical and zoological provinces. Icebergs frequent in the seas; glaciers on hills of moderate height.
4. Older Pliocene. A third or more of the species of mollusca extinct. Nearly, if not all, the mammalia extinct.
C. Miocene.
5. Miocene. About two-thirds of the species of shells extinct. All the mammalia extinct.
D. Eocene.
III. Secondary. E. Cretaceous—Upper.
9. Maestricht beds. Yellowish-white limestone. Large marine saurians, etc.
10. Upper white chalk. Marine limestone composed in part of decomposed corals.
11. Lower white chalk.
12. Upper green sand.
13. Gault. Dark-blue marl at base of chalk escarpment. Numerous extinct genera—conchiferous cephalopoda, etc.
14. Lower green sand. Species of shells, etc., nearly all distinct from those of Upper Cretaceous.
F. Wealden.
15. Weald clay, of fresh-water origin. Shells of Pulmoniferous mollusca.
16. Hastings sand. Fresh water. Reptiles of, etc.
17. Purbeck beds. Limestone, calcareous slate, etc. Roots of trees; plants, etc.
G. Oölite.
18. Upper Oölite. Portland building-stone, sand.
19. Middle Oölite. Oxford clay, dark-blue clay. Large saurians.
20. Lower Oölite. Preponderance of ganoid fish. Plants chiefly cycads, conifers, and ferns.
H. Lias.
21. Argillaceous limestone, marl clay. Mollusca, reptiles, and fish analogous to the Oölitic.
I. Trias.
22. Upper Trias. Red, gray, green, blue, and white marls, and sandstone, with gypsum. Batrachian reptiles.
23. Middle Trias. Compact grayish limestone, with beds of muschelkalk, of dolomite and gypsum.
24. Lower Trias. Plants different for the most part.
IV. Primary. J. Permian.
25. Upper Permian. Yellow magnesian limestone. Organic remains both animal and vegetable, more allied to primary than to secondary period.
26. Lower Permian. Marl slate. Thecodont saurians, heterocercal fish, etc.
K. Carboniferous.
27. Coal measures. Great thickness of strata of fluvio-marine origin, with beds of coal of vegetable origin, based on soils retaining roots of trees. Oldest of known reptiles. Sauroid fish.
28. Mountain. Carboniferous or mountain limestone. Limestone with marine shells and corals, etc.
L. Devonian.
29. Upper Devonian. Yellow sandstone, paving and roofing stone. Tribe of fish with hard coverings. No reptiles yet known.
30. Lower Devonian. Gray sandstone.
M. Silurian.
31. Upper Silurian. Tilestone. Oldest fossil fish yet discovered. Trilobites, etc.
32. Lower Silurian. Caradoc sandstone, etc. No land plants yet known. Footprints of tortoise, etc.
33. Upper and Lower Cambrian.
The precise chemical action upon the elements composing these various geological formations at different remote periods, is no doubt difficult to ascertain. That there always has been some chemical action going on, and that it is continually going on, is certain. How and to what extent we can judge only from the experience of actual observation in the laboratory.
Mr. Crale remarks: “The whole surface of the land is exposed to chemical action of the air, and of the rainwater with its dissolved carbonic acid, and in colder countries the frost. The disintegrated matter is carried down the slopes during heavy rain; and, to a greater extent than might be supposed, especially in arid districts, by the wind; it is then transported by the streams and rivers, which when rapid deepen their channels and triturate the fragments.” Darwin says: “If the theory be true” (speaking of the time elapsed since the Cambrian lowest formation) “it is indisputable that before the lowest Cambrian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed, as long as, or probably far longer than, the whole interval from the Cambrian age to the present day; that during these vast periods, the world swarmed with living creatures. Here we encounter a formidable objection; for it seems doubtful whether the earth, in a fit state for the habitation of living creatures, has lasted long enough. Sir W. Thompson concludes that the consolidation of the crust can hardly have occurred less than 20 or more than 400 million years ago, but probably not less than 98 or more than 200 millions of years. These very wide limits show how doubtful the data are; and other elements may have hereafter to be introduced into the problem. Mr. Crale estimates that about 60 million years have elapsed since the Cambrian period, but this, judging from the small amount of organic change since the commencement of the glacial epoch, appears a very short time for the many and great mutations of life, which have certainly occurred since the Cambrian formation; and the previous 140 millions of years can hardly be considered as sufficient for the development of the varied forms of life which already existed during the Cambrian period.”
It seems almost impossible for an ordinary mind to grasp the magnitude of the figures, the span of life being so short. Yet some idea may be formed when we compare the age of this earth’s crust formation, the hundreds of thousands of years that passed in the evolution of man, and the brief space of time that has elapsed since he has become enabled to give an account of himself.
As regards the thickness of the earth’s crust, Professor Ramsey has given the maximum thickness, from actual measurement in most cases, of the successive formations in different parts of Great Britain; and this is the result:
making altogether 72,584 feet; that is, very nearly thirteen and three-quarters British miles. Büchner in his work on “Force and Matter” states: “The so-called coal formation alone required, according to Bischoff, 1,000,177 years; according to Chevandier’s calculation, 672,788 years. The Tertiary strata required for their development about 350,000 years; and before the originally incandescent earth could cool down from a temperature of 2,000 degrees to 200, there must, according to Bischoff’s calculation, have elapsed a period of 350,000,000 years. Valger calculates that the time required for the deposit of the strata known to us must at least have amounted to 648,000,000 years. I quote these figures simply to show how difficult it is, and the labor required, to form even a proximate idea as to the period of time that must have elapsed for the formation of the various strata known.
That all animals were not created at once is certain beyond all cavil and dispute. The development of the various forms of life was an exceeding slow process, and lasted very many thousand centuries. That the earth’s crust was not at certain stages of formation in a fit condition either to receive or to maintain the higher types of animal life, is well known. And we know that man’s remains are found only in the uppermost surface of the earth’s crust. Max Müller says in his “Testimony of the Rocks”: “It was not until the earlier ages of the Oölite system had passed away, that the class of Reptiles received its fullest development. And certainly very wonderful was the development which it did then receive. Reptiles became everywhere the lords and masters of the lower world. When any class of air-breathing vertebrates is very largely developed, we find it taking possession of all three terrestrial elements—earth, air, and water. Last of all, the true placental mammals appear, and thus, tried by the test of perfect reproduction, the great vertebral division receives its full development.” Agassiz’s “Principles of Zoology” says: “We distinguish four ages of nature, comprehending the great geological divisions, namely:
“1. The Primary, or Paleozoic age, comprising the lower Silurian, the upper Silurian, and the Devonian. During this age there were no air-breathing animals. The fishes were masters of creation. We may therefore call it the Reign of Fishes.
“2. The Secondary age, comprising the Carboniferous, the Trias, the Oölite, and the Cretaceous formations. This is the epoch in which air-breathing animals first appear. The Reptiles predominated over the other classes, and we may therefore call it the ‘Reign of Reptiles.’
“3. The Tertiary age, comprising the Tertiary formation. During this age terrestrial mammals of great size abound. This is the Reign of Mammals.
“4. The Modern age, characterized by the appearance of the most perfect of created beings.”
The majority of mankind trouble themselves but little whether progress is made in any one of the branches of science or not. Man has no time to
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