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diff --git a/10251.txt b/10251.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dcb6cd4 --- /dev/null +++ b/10251.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4625 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Town Geology, by Charles Kingsley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Town Geology + +Author: Charles Kingsley + +Release Date: November 24, 2003 [eBook #10251] + +Language: English + +Chatacter set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWN GEOLOGY*** + + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +TOWN GEOLOGY + + + + +PREFACE + + + +This little book, including the greater part of this Preface, has +shaped itself out of lectures given to the young men of the city of +Chester. But it does not deal, in its present form, with the geology +of the neighbourhood of Chester only. I have tried so to recast it, +that any townsman, at least in the manufacturing districts of England +and Scotland, may learn from it to judge, roughly perhaps, but on the +whole accurately, of the rocks and soils of his own neighbourhood. +He will find, it is true, in these pages, little or nothing about +those "Old Red Sandstones," so interesting to a Scotchman; and he +will have to bear in mind, if he belong to the coal districts of +Scotland, that the "stones in the wall" there belong to much older +rocks than those "New Red Sandstones" of which this book treats; and +that the coal measures of Scotland, with the volcanic rocks which +have disturbed them, are often very different in appearance to the +English coal measures. But he will soon learn to distinguish the +relative age of rocks by the fossils found in them, which he can now, +happily, study in many local museums; and he may be certain, for the +rest, that all rocks and soils whatsoever which he may meet have been +laid down by the agents, and according to the laws, which I have +tried to set forth in this book; and these only require, for the +learning of them, the exercise of his own observation and common +sense. I have not tried to make this a handbook of geological facts. +Such a guide (and none better) the young man will find in Sir Charles +Lyell's "Student's Elements of Geology." I have tried rather to +teach the method of geology, than its facts; to furnish the student +with a key to all geology, rough indeed and rudimentary, but sure and +sound enough, I trust, to help him to unlock most geological problems +which he may meet, in any quarter of the globe. But young men must +remember always, that neither this book, nor all the books in the +world, will make them geologists. No amount of book learning will +make a man a scientific man; nothing but patient observation, and +quiet and fair thought over what he has observed. He must go out for +himself, see for himself, compare and judge for himself, in the +field, the quarry, the cutting. He must study rocks, ores, fossils, +in the nearest museum; and thus store his head, not with words, but +with facts. He must verify--as far as he can--what he reads in +books, by his own observation; and be slow to believe anything, even +on the highest scientific authority, till he has either seen it, or +something like enough to it to make it seem to him probable, or at +least possible. So, and so only, will he become a scientific man, +and a good geologist; and acquire that habit of mind by which alone +he can judge fairly and wisely of facts of any kind whatsoever. + +I say--facts of any kind whatsoever. If any of my readers should be +inclined to say to themselves: Geology may be a very pleasant study, +but I have no special fancy for it. I had rather learn something of +botany, astronomy, chemistry, or what not--I shall answer: By all +means. Learn any branch of Natural Science you will. It matters +little to me which you learn, provided you learn one at least. But +bear in mind, and settle it in your hearts, that you will learn no +branch of science soundly, so as to master it, and be able to make +use of it, unless you acquire that habit and method of mind which I +am trying to teach you in this book. I have tried to teach it you by +geology, because geology is, perhaps, the simplest and the easiest of +all physical sciences. It appeals more than any to mere common +sense. It requires fewer difficult experiments, and expensive +apparatus. It requires less previous knowledge of other sciences, +whether pure or mixed; at least in its rudimentary stages. It is +more free from long and puzzling Greek and Latin words. It is +specially, the poor man's science. But if you do not like it, study +something else. Only study that as you must study geology; +proceeding from the known to the unknown by observation and +experiment. + +But here some of my readers may ask, as they have a perfect right to +ask, why I wish young men to learn Natural Science at all? What good +will the right understanding of geology, or of astronomy, or of +chemistry, or of the plants or animals which they meet--what good, I +say, will that do them? + +In the first place, they need, I presume, occupation after their +hours of work. If any of them answer: "We do not want occupation, +we want amusement. Work is very dull, and we want something which +will excite our fancy, imagination, sense of humour. We want poetry, +fiction, even a good laugh or a game of play"--I shall most fully +agree with them. There is often no better medicine for a hard-worked +body and mind than a good laugh; and the man who can play most +heartily when he has a chance of playing is generally the man who can +work most heartily when he must work. But there is certainly nothing +in the study of physical science to interfere with genial hilarity; +though, indeed, some solemn persons have been wont to reprove the +members of the British Association, and specially that Red Lion Club, +where all the philosophers are expected to lash their tails and roar, +of being somewhat too fond of mere and sheer fun, after the abstruse +papers of the day are read and discussed. And as for harmless +amusement, and still more for the free exercise of the fancy and the +imagination, I know few studies to compare with Natural History; with +the search for the most beautiful and curious productions of Nature +amid her loveliest scenery, and in her freshest atmosphere. I have +known again and again working men who in the midst of smoky cities +have kept their bodies, their minds, and their hearts healthy and +pure by going out into the country at odd hours, and making +collections of fossils, plants, insects, birds, or some other objects +of natural history; and I doubt not that such will be the case with +some of my readers. + +Another argument, and a very strong one, in favour of studying some +branch of Natural Science just now is this--that without it you can +hardly keep pace with the thought of the world around you. + +Over and above the solid gain of a scientific habit of mind, of which +I shall speak presently, the gain of mere facts, the increased +knowledge of this planet on which we live, is very valuable just now; +valuable certainly to all who do not wish their children and their +younger brothers to know more about the universe than they do. + +Natural Science is now occupying a more and more important place in +education. Oxford, Cambridge, the London University, the public +schools, one after another, are taking up the subject in earnest; so +are the middle-class schools; so I trust will all primary schools +throughout the country; and I hope that my children, at least, if not +I myself, will see the day, when ignorance of the primary laws and +facts of science will be looked on as a defect, only second to +ignorance of the primary laws of religion and morality. + +I speak strongly, but deliberately. It does seem to me strange, to +use the mildest word, that people whose destiny it is to live, even +for a few short years, on this planet which we call the earth, and +who do not at all intend to live on it as hermits, shutting +themselves up in cells, and looking on death as an escape and a +deliverance, but intend to live as comfortably and wholesomely as +they can, they and their children after them--it seems strange, I +say, that such people should in general be so careless about the +constitution of this same planet, and of the laws and facts on which +depend, not merely their comfort and their wealth, but their health +and their very lives, and the health and the lives of their children +and descendants. + +I know some will say, at least to themselves: "What need for us to +study science? There are plenty to do that already; and we shall be +sure sooner or later to profit by their discoveries; and meanwhile it +is not science which is needed to make mankind thrive, but simple +common sense." + +I should reply, that to expect to profit by other men's discoveries +when you do not pay for them--to let others labour in the hope of +entering into their labours, is not a very noble or generous state of +mind--comparable somewhat, I should say, to that of the fatting ox, +who willingly allows the farmer to house him, till for him, feed him, +provided only he himself may lounge in his stall, and eat, and NOT be +thankful. There is one difference in the two cases, but only one-- +that while the farmer can repay himself by eating the ox, the +scientific man cannot repay himself by eating you; and so never gets +paid, in most cases, at all. + +But as for mankind thriving by common sense: they have not thriven +by common sense, because they have not used their common sense +according to that regulated method which is called science. In no +age, in no country, as yet, have the majority of mankind been guided, +I will not say by the love of God, and by the fear of God, but even +by sense and reason. Not sense and reason, but nonsense and +unreason, prejudice and fancy, greed and haste, have led them to such +results as were to be expected--to superstitions, persecutions, wars, +famines, pestilence, hereditary diseases, poverty, waste--waste +incalculable, and now too often irremediable--waste of life, of +labour, of capital, of raw material, of soil, of manure, of every +bounty which God has bestowed on man, till, as in the eastern +Mediterranean, whole countries, some of the finest in the world, seem +ruined for ever: and all because men will not learn nor obey those +physical laws of the universe, which (whether we be conscious of them +or not) are all around us, like walls of iron and of adamant--say +rather, like some vast machine, ruthless though beneficent, among the +wheels of which if we entangle ourselves in our rash ignorance, they +will not stop to set us free, but crush us, as they have crushed +whole nations and whole races ere now, to powder. Very terrible, +though very calm, is outraged Nature. + + +Though the mills of God grind slowly, + Yet they grind exceeding small; +Though He sit, and wait with patience, + With exactness grinds He all. + + +It is, I believe, one of the most hopeful among the many hopeful +signs of the times, that the civilised nations of Europe and America +are awakening slowly but surely to this truth. The civilised world +is learning, thank God, more and more of the importance of physical +science; year by year, thank God, it is learning to live more and +more according to those laws of physical science, which are, as the +great Lord Bacon said of old, none other than "Vox Dei in rebus +revelata"--the Word of God revealed in facts; and it is gaining by so +doing, year by year, more and more of health and wealth; of peaceful +and comfortable, even of graceful and elevating, means of life for +fresh millions. + +If you want to know what the study of physical science has done for +man, look, as a single instance, at the science of Sanatory Reform; +the science which does not merely try to cure disease, and shut the +stable-door after the horse is stolen, but tries to prevent disease; +and, thank God! is succeeding beyond our highest expectations. Or +look at the actual fresh amount of employment, of subsistence, which +science has, during the last century, given to men; and judge for +yourselves whether the study of it be not one worthy of those who +wish to help themselves, and, in so doing, to help their fellow-men. +Let me quote to you a passage from an essay urging the institution of +schools of physical science for artisans, which says all I wish to +say and more: + +"The discoveries of Voltaic electricity, electromagnetism, and +magnetic electricity, by Volta, OErsted, and Faraday, led to the +invention of electric telegraphy by Wheatstone and others, and to the +great manufactures of telegraph cables and telegraph wire, and of the +materials required for them. The value of the cargo of the Great +Eastern alone in the recent Bombay telegraph expedition was +calculated at three millions of pounds sterling. It also led to the +employment of thousands of operators to transmit the telegraphic +messages, and to a great increase of our commerce in nearly all its +branches by the more rapid means of communication. The discovery of +Voltaic electricity further led to the invention of electro-plating, +and to the employment of a large number of persons in that business. +The numerous experimental researches on specific heat, latent heat, +the tension of vapours, the properties of water, the mechanical +effect of heat, etc., resulted in the development of steam-engines, +and railways, and the almost endless employments depending upon their +construction and use. About a quarter of a million of persons are +employed on railways alone in Great Britain. The various original +investigations on the chemical effects of light led to the invention +of photography, and have given employment to thousands of persons who +practise that process, or manufacture and prepare the various +material and articles required in it. The discovery of chlorine by +Scheele led to the invention of the modern processes of bleaching, +and to various improvements in the dyeing of the textile fabrics, and +has given employment to a very large number of our Lancashire +operatives. The discovery of chlorine has also contributed to the +employment of thousands of printers, by enabling Esparto grass to be +bleached and formed into paper for the use of our daily press. The +numerous experimental investigations in relation to coal-gas have +been the means of extending the use of that substance, and of +increasing the employment of workmen and others connected with its +manufacture. The discovery of the alkaline metals by Davy, of +cyanide of potassium, of nickel, phosphorus, the common acids, and a +multitude of other substances, has led to the employment of a whole +army of workmen in the conversion of those substances into articles +of utility. The foregoing examples might be greatly enlarged upon, +and a great many others might be selected from the sciences of +physics and chemistry: but those mentioned will suffice. There is +not a force of Nature, nor scarcely a material substance that we +employ, which has not been the subject of several, and in some cases +of numerous, original experimental researches, many of which have +resulted, in a greater or less degree, in increasing the employment +for workmen and others." {1} + +"All this may be very true. But of what practical use will physical +science be to me?" + +Let me ask in return: Are none of you going to emigrate? If you +have courage and wisdom, emigrate you will, some of you, instead of +stopping here to scramble over each other's backs for the scraps, +like black-beetles in a kitchen. And if you emigrate, you will soon +find out, if you have eyes and common sense, that the vegetable +wealth of the world is no more exhausted than its mineral wealth. +Exhausted? Not half of it--I believe not a tenth of it--is yet +known. Could I show you the wealth which I have seen in a single +Tropic island, not sixty miles square--precious timbers, gums, +fruits, what not, enough to give employment and wealth to thousands +and tens of thousands, wasting for want of being known and worked-- +then you would see what a man who emigrates may do, by a little sound +knowledge of botany alone. + +And if not. Suppose that any one of you, learning a little sound +Natural History, should abide here in Britain to your life's end, and +observe nothing but the hedgerow plants, he would find that there is +much more to be seen in those mere hedgerow plants than he fancies +now. The microscope will reveal to him in the tissues of any wood, +of any seed, wonders which will first amuse him, then puzzle him, and +at last (I hope) awe him, as he perceives that smallness of size +interferes in no way with perfection of development, and that +"Nature," as has been well said, "is greatest in that which is +least." And more. Suppose that he went further still. Suppose that +he extended his researches somewhat to those minuter vegetable forms, +the mosses, fungi, lichens; suppose that he went a little further +still, and tried what the microscope would show him in any stagnant +pool, whether fresh water or salt, of Desmidiae, Diatoms, and all +those wondrous atomies which seem as yet to defy our classification +into plants or animals. Suppose he learnt something of this, but +nothing of aught else. Would he have gained no solid wisdom? He +would be a stupider man than I have a right to believe any of my +readers to be, if he had not gained thereby somewhat of the most +valuable of treasures--namely, that inductive habit of mind, that +power of judging fairly of facts, without which no good or lasting +work will be done, whether in physical science, in social science, in +politics, in philosophy, in philology, or in history. + +But more: let me urge you to study Natural Science, on grounds which +may be to you new and unexpected--on social, I had almost said on +political, grounds. + +We all know, and I trust we all love, the names of Liberty, Equality, +and Brotherhood. We feel, I trust, that these words are too +beautiful not to represent true and just ideas; and that therefore +they will come true, and be fulfilled, somewhen, somewhere, somehow. +It may be in a shape very different from that which you, or I, or any +man expects; but still they will be fulfilled. + +But if they are to come true, it is we, the individual men, who must +help them to come true for the whole world, by practising them +ourselves, when and where we can. And I tell you--that in becoming +scientific men, in studying science and acquiring the scientific +habit of mind, you will find yourselves enjoying a freedom, an +equality, a brotherhood, such as you will not find elsewhere just +now. + +Freedom: what do we want freedom for? For this, at least; that we +may be each and all able to think what we choose; and to say what we +choose also, provided we do not say it rudely or violently, so as to +provoke a breach of the peace. That last was Mr. Buckle's definition +of freedom of speech. That was the only limit to it which he would +allow; and I think that that is Mr. John Stuart Mill's limit also. +It is mine. And I think we have that kind of freedom in these +islands as perfectly as any men are likely to have it on this earth. + +But what I complain of is, that when men have got the freedom, three +out of four of them will not use it. What?--someone will answer--Do +you suppose that I will not say what I choose, and that I dare not +speak my own mind to any man? Doubtless. But are you sure first, +that you think what you choose, or only what someone else chooses for +you? Are you sure that you make up your own mind before you speak, +or let someone else make it up for you? Your speech may be free +enough, my good friend; and Heaven forbid that it should be anything +else: but are your thoughts free likewise? Are you sure that, +though you may hate bigotry in others, you are not somewhat of a +bigot yourself? That you do not look at only one side of a question, +and that the one which pleases you? That you do not take up your +opinions at second hand, from some book or some newspaper, which +after all only reflects your own feelings, your own opinions? You +should ask yourselves that question, seriously and often: "Are my +thoughts really free?" No one values more highly than I do the +advantage of a free press. But you must remember always that a +newspaper editor, however honest or able, is no more infallible than +the Pope; that he may, just as you may, only see one side of a +question, while any question is sure to have two sides, or perhaps +three or four; and if you only see the side which suits you, day +after day, month after month, you must needs become bigoted to it. +Your thoughts must needs run in one groove. They cannot (as Mr. +Matthew Arnold would say) "play freely round" a question; and look it +all over, boldly, patiently, rationally, charitably. + +And I tell you that if you, or I, or any man, want to let our +thoughts play freely round questions, and so escape from the tendency +to become bigoted and narrow-minded which there is in every human +being, then we must acquire something of that inductive habit of mind +which the study of Natural Science gives. It is, after all, as +Professor Huxley says, only common sense well regulated. But then it +is well regulated; and how precious it is, if you can but get it. +The art of seeing, the art of knowing what you see; the art of +comparing, of perceiving true likenesses and true differences, and so +of classifying and arranging what you see: the art of connecting +facts together in your own mind in chains of cause and effect, and +that accurately, patiently, calmly, without prejudice, vanity, or +temper--this is what is wanted for true freedom of mind. But +accuracy, patience, freedom from prejudice, carelessness for all +except the truth, whatever the truth may be--are not these the +virtues of a truly free spirit? Then, as I said just now, I know no +study so able to give that free habit of mind as the Study of Natural +Science. + +Equality, too: whatever equality may or may not be just, or +possible; this at least, is just, and I hope possible; that every +man, every child, of every rank, should have an equal chance of +education; an equal chance of developing all that is in him by +nature; an equal chance of acquiring a fair knowledge of those facts +of the universe which specially concern him; and of having his reason +trained to judge of them. I say, whatever equal rights men may or +may not have, they have this right. Let every boy, every girl, have +an equal and sound education. If I had my way, I would give the same +education to the child of the collier and to the child of a peer. I +would see that they were taught the same things, and by the same +method. Let them all begin alike, say I. They will be handicapped +heavily enough as they go on in life, without our handicapping them +in their first race. Whatever stable they come out of, whatever +promise they show, let them all train alike, and start fair, and let +the best colt win. + +Well: but there is a branch of education in which, even now, the +poor man can compete fairly against the rich; and that is, Natural +Science. In the first place, the rich, blind to their own interest, +have neglected it hitherto in their schools; so that they have not +the start of the poor man on that subject which they have on many. +In the next place, Natural Science is a subject which a man cannot +learn by paying for teachers. He must teach it himself, by patient +observation, by patient common sense. And if the poor man is not the +rich man's equal in those qualities, it must be his own fault, not +his purse's. Many shops have I seen about the world, in which fools +could buy articles more or less helpful to them; but never saw I yet +an observation-shop, nor a common-sense shop either. And if any man +says, "We must buy books:" I answer, a poor man now can obtain better +scientific books than a duke or a prince could sixty years ago, +simply because then the books did not exist. When I was a boy I +would have given much, or rather my father would have given much, if +I could have got hold of such scientific books as are to be found now +in any first-class elementary school. And if more expensive books +are needed; if a microscope or apparatus is needed; can you not get +them by the co-operative method, which has worked so well in other +matters? Can you not form yourselves into a Natural Science club, +for buying such things and lending them round among your members; and +for discussion also, the reading of scientific papers of your own +writing, the comparing of your observations, general mutual help and +mutual instructions? Such societies are becoming numerous now, and +gladly should I see one in every town. For in science, as in most +matters, "As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the +countenance of his friend." + +And Brotherhood: well, if you want that; if you want to mix with +men, and men, too, eminently worth mixing with, on the simple ground +that "a man's a man for a' that;" if you want to become the +acquaintances, and--if you prove worthy--the friends, of men who will +be glad to teach you all they know, and equally glad to learn from +you anything you can teach them, asking no questions about you, save, +first--Is he an honest student of Nature for her own sake? And next- +-Is he a man who will not quarrel, or otherwise behave in an +unbrotherly fashion to his fellow-students?--If you want a ground of +brotherhood with men, not merely in these islands, but in America, on +the Continent--in a word, all over the world--such as rank, wealth, +fashion, or other artificial arrangements of the world cannot give +and cannot take away; if you want to feel yourself as good as any man +in theory, because you are as good as any man in practice, except +those who are better than you in the same line, which is open to any +and every man; if you wish to have the inspiring and ennobling +feeling of being a brother in a great freemasonry which owns no +difference of rank, of creed, or of nationality--the only +freemasonry, the only International League which is likely to make +mankind (as we all hope they will be some day) one--then become men +of science. Join the freemasonry in which Hugh Miller, the poor +Cromarty stonemason, in which Michael Faraday, the poor bookbinder's +boy, became the companions and friends of the noblest and most +learned on earth, looked up to by them not as equals merely but as +teachers and guides, because philosophers and discoverers. + +Do you wish to be great? Then be great with true greatness; which +is,--knowing the facts of nature, and being able to use them. Do you +wish to be strong? Then be strong with true strength; which is, +knowing the facts of nature, and being able to use them. Do you wish +to be wise? Then be wise with true wisdom; which is, knowing the +facts of nature, and being able to use them. Do you wish to be free? +Then be free with true freedom; which is again, knowing the facts of +nature, and being able to use them. + +I dare say some of my readers, especially the younger ones, will +demur to that last speech of mine. Well, I hope they will not be +angry with me for saying it. I, at least, shall certainly not he +angry with them. For when I was young I was very much of what I +suspect is their opinion. I used to think one could get perfect +freedom, and social reform, and all that I wanted, by altering the +arrangements of society and legislation; by constitutions, and Acts +of Parliament; by putting society into some sort of freedom-mill, and +grinding it all down, and regenerating it so. And that something can +be done by improved arrangements, something can be done by Acts of +Parliament, I hold still, as every rational man must hold. + +But as I grew older, I began to see that if things were to be got +right, the freedom-mill would do very little towards grinding them +right, however well and amazingly it was made. I began to see that +what sort of flour came out at one end of the mill, depended mainly +on what sort of grain you had put in at the other; and I began to see +that the problem was to get good grain, and then good flour would be +turned out, even by a very clumsy old-fashioned sort of mill. And +what do I mean by good grain? Good men, honest men, accurate men, +righteous men, patient men, self-restraining men, fair men, modest +men. Men who are aware of their own vast ignorance compared with the +vast amount that there is to be learned in such a universe as this. +Men who are accustomed to look at both sides of a question; who, +instead of making up their minds in haste like bigots and fanatics, +wait like wise men, for more facts, and more thought about the facts. +In one word, men who had acquired just the habit of mind which the +study of Natural Science can give, and must give; for without it +there is no use studying Natural Science; and the man who has not got +that habit of mind, if he meddles with science, will merely become a +quack and a charlatan, only fit to get his bread as a spirit-rapper, +or an inventor of infallible pills. + +And when I saw that, I said to myself--I will train myself, by +Natural Science, to the truly rational, and therefore truly able and +useful, habit of mind; and more, I will, for it is my duty as an +Englishman, train every Englishman over whom I can get influence in +the same scientific habit of mind, that I may, if possible, make him, +too, a rational and an able man. + +And, therefore, knowing that most of you, my readers--probably all of +you, as you ought and must if you are Britons, think much of social +and political questions---therefore, I say, I entreat you to +cultivate the scientific spirit by which alone you can judge justly +of those questions. I ask you to learn how to "conquer nature by +obeying her," as the great Lord Bacon said two hundred and fifty +years ago. For so only will you in your theories and your movements, +draw "bills which nature will honour"--to use Mr. Carlyle's famous +parable--because they are according to her unchanging laws, and not +have them returned on your hands, as too many theorists' are, with +"no effects" written across their backs. + +Take my advice for yourselves, dear readers, and for your children +after you; for, believe me, I am showing you the way to true and +useful, and, therefore, to just and deserved power. I am showing you +the way to become members of what I trust will be--what I am certain +ought to be--the aristocracy of the future. + +I say it deliberately, as a student of society and of history. Power +will pass more and more, if all goes healthily and well, into the +hands of scientific men; into the hands of those who have made due +use of that great heirloom which the philosophers of the seventeenth +century left for the use of future generations, and specially of the +Teutonic race. + +For the rest, events seem but too likely to repeat themselves again +and again all over the world, in the same hopeless circle. +Aristocracies of mere birth decay and die, and give place to +aristocracies of mere wealth; and they again to "aristocracies of +genius," which are really aristocracies of the noisiest, of mere +scribblers and spouters, such as France is writhing under at this +moment. And when these last have blown off their steam, with mighty +roar, but without moving the engine a single yard, then they are but +too likely to give place to the worst of all aristocracies, the +aristocracy of mere "order," which means organised brute force and +military despotism. And, after that, what can come, save anarchy, +and decay, and social death? + +What else?--unless there be left in the nation, in the society, as +the salt of the land, to keep it all from rotting, a sufficient +number of wise men to form a true working aristocracy, an aristocracy +of sound and rational science? If they be strong enough (and they +are growing stronger day by day over the civilised world), on them +will the future of that world mainly depend. They will rule, and +they will act--cautiously we may hope, and modestly and charitably, +because in learning true knowledge they will have learnt also their +own ignorance, and the vastness, the complexity, the mystery of +nature. But they will be able to rule, they will be able to act, +because they have taken the trouble to learn the facts and the laws +of nature. They will rule; and their rule, if they are true to +themselves, will be one of health and wealth, and peace, of prudence +and of justice. For they alone will be able to wield for the benefit +of man the brute forces of nature; because they alone will have +stooped, to "conquer nature by obeying her." + +So runs my dream. I ask my young readers to help towards making that +dream a fact, by becoming (as many of them as feel the justice of my +words) honest and earnest students of Natural Science. + +But now: why should I, as a clergyman, interest myself specially in +the spread of Natural Science? Am I not going out of my proper +sphere to meddle with secular matters? Am I not, indeed, going into +a sphere out of which I had better keep myself, and all over whom I +may have influence? For is not science antagonistic to religion? +and, if so, what has a clergyman to do, save to warn the young +against it, instead of attracting them towards it? + +First, as to meddling with secular matters. I grudge that epithet of +"secular" to any matter whatsoever. But I do more; I deny it to +anything which God has made, even to the tiniest of insects, the most +insignificant atom of dust. To those who believe in God, and try to +see all things in God, the most minute natural phenomenon cannot be +secular. It must be divine; I say, deliberately, divine; and I can +use no less lofty word. The grain of dust is a thought of God; God's +power made it; God's wisdom gave it whatsoever properties or +qualities it may possess; God's providence has put it in the place +where it is now, and has ordained that it should be in that place at +that moment, by a train of causes and effects which reaches back to +the very creation of the universe. The grain of dust can no more go +from God's presence, or flee from God's Spirit, than you or I can. +If it go up to the physical heaven, and float (as it actually often +does) far above the clouds, in those higher strata of the atmosphere +which the aeronaut has never visited, whither the Alpine snow-peaks +do not rise, even there it will be obeying physical laws which we +term hastily laws of Nature, but which are really the laws of God: +and if it go down into the physical abyss; if it be buried fathoms, +miles, below the surface, and become an atom of some rock still in +the process of consolidation, has it escaped from God, even in the +bowels of the earth? Is it not there still obeying physical laws, of +pressure, heat, crystallisation, and so forth, which are laws of God- +-the will and mind of God concerning particles of matter? Only look +at all created things in this light--look at them as what they are, +the expressions of God's mind and will concerning this universe in +which we live--"the Word of God," as Bacon says, "revealed in facts"- +-and then you will not fear physical science; for you will be sure +that, the more you know of physical science, the more you will know +of the works and of the will of God. At least, you will be in +harmony with the teaching of the Psalmist: "The heavens," says he, +"declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. +There is neither speech nor language where their voices are not heard +among them." So held the Psalmist concerning astronomy, the +knowledge of the heavenly bodies; and what he says of sun and stars +is true likewise of the flowers around our feet, of which the +greatest Christian poet of modern times has said-- + + +To me the meanest flower that grows may give +Thoughts that do lie too deep for tears. + + +So, again, you will be in harmony with the teaching of St. Paul, who +told the Romans "that the invisible things of God are clearly seen +from the creation of the-world, being understood by the things that +are made, even His eternal power and Godhead;" and who told the +savages of Lycaonia that "God had not left Himself without witness, +in that He did good and sent men rain from heaven, and fruitful +seasons, filling men's hearts with food and gladness." Rain and +fruitful seasons witnessed to all men of a Father in heaven. And he +who wishes to know how truly St. Paul spoke, let him study the laws +which produce and regulate rain and fruitful seasons, what we now +call climatology, meteorology, geography of land and water. Let him +read that truly noble Christian work, Maury's "Physical Geography of +the Sea;" and see, if he be a truly rational man, how advanced +science, instead of disproving, has only corroborated St. Paul's +assertion, and how the ocean and the rain-cloud, like the sun and +stars, declare the glory of God. And if anyone undervalues the +sciences which teach us concerning stones and plants and animals, or +thinks that nothing can be learnt from them concerning God--allow one +who has been from childhood only a humble, though he trusts a +diligent student of these sciences--allow him, I say, to ask in all +reverence, but in all frankness, who it was who said, "Consider the +lilies of the field, how they grow." "Consider the birds of the air- +-and how your Heavenly Father feedeth them." + +Consider them. If He has bid you do so, can you do so too much? + +I know, of course, the special application which our Lord made of +these words. But I know, too, from experience, that the more you +study nature, in all her forms the more you will find that the +special application itself is deeper, wider, more literally true, +more wonderful, more tender, and if I dare use such a word, more +poetic, than the unscientific man can guess. + +But let me ask you further--do you think that our Lord in that +instance, and in those many instances in which He drew his parables +and lessons from natural objects, was leading men's minds on to +dangerous ground, and pointing out to them a subject of contemplation +in the laws and processes of the natural world, and their analogy +with those of the spiritual world, the kingdom of God--a subject of +contemplation, I say, which it was not safe to contemplate too much? + +I appeal to your common sense. If He who spoke these words were (as +I believe) none other than the Creator of the universe, by whom all +things were made, and without whom nothing was made that is made, do +you suppose that He would have bid you to consider His universe, had +it been dangerous for you to do so? + +Do you suppose, moreover, that the universe, which He, the Truth, the +Light, the Love, has made, can be otherwise then infinitely worthy to +be considered? or that the careful, accurate, and patient +consideration of it, even to its minutest details, can be otherwise +than useful to man, and can bear witness of aught, save the mind and +character of Him who made it? And if so, can it be a work unfit for, +unworthy of, a clergyman--whose duty is to preach Him to all, and in +all ways,--to call on men to consider that physical world which, like +the spiritual world, consists, holds together, by Him, and lives and +moves and has its being in Him? + +And here I must pause to answer an objection which I have heard in my +youth from many pious and virtuous people--better people in God's +sight, than I, I fear, can pretend to be. + +They used to say, "This would be all very true if there were not a +curse upon the earth." And then they seemed to deduce, from the fact +of that curse, a vague notion (for it was little more) that this +world was the devil's world, and that therefore physical facts could +not be trusted, because they were disordered, and deceptive, and what +not. + +Now, in justice to the Bible, and in justice to the Church of +England, I am bound to say that such a statement, or anything like +it, is contrary to the doctrines of both. It is contrary to +Scripture. According to it, the earth is not cursed. For it is said +in Gen. viii. 21, "And the Lord said, I will not again curse the +ground any more for man's sake. While the earth remaineth, seed-time +and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall +not cease." According to Scripture, again, physical facts are not +disordered. The Psalmist says, "They continue this day according to +their ordinance; for all things serve Thee." And again, "Thou hast +made them fast for ever and ever. Thou hast given them a law which +cannot be broken." + +So does the Bible (not to quote over again the passages which I have +already given you from St. Paul, and One greater than St. Paul) +declare the permanence of natural laws, and the trustworthiness of +natural phenomena as obedient to God. And so does the Church of +England. For she has incorporated into her services that magnificent +hymn, which our forefathers called the Song of the Three Children; +which is, as it were, the very flower and crown of the Old Testament; +the summing up of all that is true and eternal in the old Jewish +faith; as true for us as for them: as true millions of years hence +as it is now--which cries to all heaven and earth, from the skies +above our heads to the green herb beneath our feet, "O all ye works +of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; praise Him and magnify Him for ever." +On that one hymn I take my stand. That is my charter as a student of +Natural Science. As long as that is sung in an English church, I +have a right to investigate Nature boldly without stint or stay, and +to call on all who have the will, to investigate her boldly likewise, +and with Socrates of old, to follow the Logos whithersoever it leads. + +The Logos. I must pause on that word. It meant at first, no doubt, +simply speech, argument, reason. In the mind of Socrates it had a +deeper meaning, at which he only dimly guessed; which was seen more +clearly by Philo and the Alexandrian Jews; which was revealed in all +its fulness to the beloved Apostle St. John, till he gathered speech +to tell men of a Logos, a Word, who was in the beginning with God, +and was God; by whom all things were made, and without Him was not +anything made that was made; and how in Him was Life, and the Life +was the light of men; and that He was none other than Jesus Christ +our Lord. + +Yes, that is the truth. And to that truth no man can add, and from +it no man can take away. And as long as we believe that as long as +we believe that in His light alone can we see light--as long as we +believe that the light around us, whether physical or spiritual, is +given by Him without whom nothing is made--so long we shall not fear +to meet Light, so long we shall not fear to investigate Life; for we +shall know, however strange or novel, beautiful or awful, the +discoveries we make may be, we are only following the Word +whithersoever He may lead us; and that He can never lead us amiss + + + +I. THE SOIL OF THE FIELD {2} + + + +My dear readers, let me, before touching on the special subject of +this paper, say a few words on that of the whole series. + +It is geology: that is, the science which explains to us the RIND of +the earth; of what it is made; how it has been made. It tells us +nothing of the mass of the earth. That is, properly speaking, an +astronomical question. If I may be allowed to liken this earth to a +fruit, then astronomy will tell us--when it knows--how the fruit +grew, and what is inside the fruit. Geology can only tell us at most +how its rind, its outer covering, grew, and of what it is composed; a +very small part, doubtless, of all that is to be known about this +planet. + +But as it happens, the mere rind of this earth-fruit which has, +countless ages since, dropped, as it were, from the Bosom of God, the +Eternal Fount of Life--the mere rind of this earth-fruit, I say, is +so beautiful and so complex, that it is well worth our awful and +reverent study. It has been well said, indeed, that the history of +it, which we call geology, would be a magnificent epic poem, were +there only any human interest in it; did it deal with creatures more +like ourselves than stones, and bones, and the dead relics of plants +and beasts. Whether there be no human interest in geology; whether +man did not exist on the earth during ages which have seen enormous +geological changes, is becoming more and more an open question. + +But meanwhile all must agree that there is matter enough for +interest--nay, room enough for the free use of the imagination, in a +science which tells of the growth and decay of whole mountain-ranges, +continents, oceans, whole tribes and worlds of plants and animals. + +And yet it is not so much for the vastness and grandeur of those +scenes of the distant past, to which the science of geology +introduces us, that I value it as a study, and wish earnestly to +awaken you to its beauty and importance. It is because it is the +science from which you will learn most easily a sound scientific +habit of thought. I say most easily; and for these reasons. The +most important facts of geology do not require, to discover them, any +knowledge of mathematics or of chemical analysis; they may be studied +in every bank, every grot, every quarry, every railway-cutting, by +anyone who has eyes and common sense, and who chooses to copy the +late illustrious Hugh Miller, who made himself a great geologist out +of a poor stonemason. Next, its most important theories are not, or +need not be, wrapped up in obscure Latin and Greek terms. They may +be expressed in the simplest English, because they are discovered by +simple common sense. And thus geology is (or ought to be), in +popular parlance, the people's science--the science by studying +which, the man ignorant of Latin, Greek, mathematics, scientific +chemistry, can yet become--as far as his brain enables him--a truly +scientific man. + +But how shall we learn science by mere common sense? + +First. Always try to explain the unknown by the known. If you meet +something which you have not seen before, then think of the thing +most like it which you have seen before; and try if that which you +know explains the one will not explain the other also. Sometimes it +will; sometimes it will not. But if it will, no one has a right to +ask you to try any other explanation. + +Suppose, for instance, that you found a dead bird on the top of a +cathedral tower, and were asked how you thought it had got there. +You would say, "Of course, it died up here." But if a friend said, +"Not so; it dropped from a balloon, or from the clouds;" and told you +the prettiest tale of how the bird came to so strange an end, you +would answer, "No, no; I must reason from what I know. I know that +birds haunt the cathedral tower; I know that birds die; and +therefore, let your story be as pretty as it may, my common sense +bids me take the simplest explanation, and say--it died here." In +saying that, you would be talking scientifically. You would have +made a fair and sufficient induction (as it is called) from the facts +about birds' habits and birds' deaths which you know. + +But suppose that when you took the bird up you found that it was +neither a jackdaw, nor a sparrow nor a swallow, as you expected, but +a humming-bird. Then you would be adrift again. The fact of it +being a humming-bird would be a new fact which you had not taken into +account, and for which your old explanation was not sufficient; and +you would have to try a new induction--to use your common sense +afresh--saying, "I have not to explain merely how a dead bird got +here, but how a dead humming-bird." + +And now, if your imaginative friend chimed in triumphantly with: "Do +you not see that I was right after all? Do you not see that it fell +from the clouds? that it was swept away hither, all the way from +South America, by some south-westerly storm, and wearied out at last, +dropped here to find rest, as in a sacred-place?" what would you +answer? "My friend, that is a beautiful imagination; but I must +treat it only as such, as long as I can explain the mystery more +simply by facts which I do know. I do not know that humming-birds +can be blown across the Atlantic alive. I do know they are actually +brought across the Atlantic dead; are stuck in ladies' hats. I know +that ladies visit the cathedral; and odd as the accident is, I prefer +to believe, till I get a better explanation, that the humming-bird +has simply dropped out of a lady's hat." There, again, you would be +speaking common sense; and using, too, sound inductive method; trying +to explain what you do not know from what you do know already. + +Now, I ask of you to employ the same common sense when you read and +think of Geology. + +It is very necessary to do so. For in past times men have tried to +explain the making of the world around them, its oceans, rivers, +mountains, and continents, by I know not what of fancied cataclysms +and convulsions of nature; explaining the unknown by the still more +unknown, till some of their geological theories were no more +rational, because no more founded on known facts, than that of the +New Zealand Maories, who hold that some god, when fishing, fished up +their islands out of the bottom of the ocean. But a sounder and +wiser school of geologists now reigns; the father of whom, in England +at least, is the venerable Sir Charles Lyell. He was almost the +first of Englishmen who taught us to see--what common sense tells us- +-that the laws which we see at work around us now have been most +probably at work since the creation of the world; and that whatever +changes may seem to have taken place in past ages, and in ancient +rocks, should be explained, if possible, by the changes which are +taking place now in the most recent deposits--in the soil of the +field. + +And in the last forty years--since that great and sound idea has +become rooted in the minds of students, and especially of English +students, geology has thriven and developed, perhaps more than any +other science; and has led men on to discoveries far more really +astonishing and awful than all fancied convulsions and cataclysms. + +I have planned this series of papers, therefore, on Sir Charles +Lyell's method. I have begun by trying to teach a little about the +part of the earth's crust which lies nearest us, which we see most +often; namely, the soil; intending, if my readers do me the honour to +read the papers which follow, to lead them downward, as it were, into +the earth; deeper and deeper in each paper, to rocks and minerals +which are probably less known to them than the soil in the fields. +Thus you will find I shall lead you, or try to lead you on, +throughout the series, from the known to the unknown, and show you +how to explain the latter by the former. Sir Charles Lyell has, I +see, in the new edition of his "Student's Elements of Geology," begun +his book with the uppermost, that is, newest, strata, or layers; and +has gone regularly downwards in the course of the book to the lowest +or earliest strata; and I shall follow his plan. + +I must ask you meanwhile to remember one law or rule, which seems to +me founded on common sense; namely, that the uppermost strata are +really almost always the newest; that when two or more layers, +whether of rock or earth--or indeed two stones in the street, or two +sheets on a bed, or two books on a table--any two or more lifeless +things, in fact, lie one on the other, then the lower one was most +probably put there first, and the upper one laid down on the lower. +Does that seem to you a truism? Do I seem almost impertinent in +asking you to remember it? So much the better. I shall be saved +unnecessary trouble hereafter. + +But some one may say, and will have a right to say, "Stop--the lower +thing may have been thrust under the upper one." Quite true: and +therefore I said only that the lower one was most probably put there +first. And I said "most probably," because it is most probable that +in nature we should find things done by the method which costs least +force, just as you do them. I will warrant that when you want to +hide a thing, you lay something down on it ten times for once that +you thrust it under something else. You may say, "What? When I want +to hide a paper, say, under the sofa-cover, do I not thrust it +under?" + +No, you lift up the cover, and slip the paper in, and let the cover +fall on it again. And so, even in that case, the paper has got into +its place first. + +Now why is this? Simply because in laying one thing on another you +only move weight. In thrusting one thing under another, you have not +only to move weight, but to overcome friction. That is why you do +it, though you are hardly aware of it: simply because so you employ +less force, and take less trouble. + +And so do clays and sands and stones. They are laid down on each +other, and not thrust under each other, because thus less force is +expended in getting them into place. + +There are exceptions. There are cases in which nature does try to +thrust one rock under another. But to do that she requires a force +so enormous, compared with what is employed in laying one rock on +another, that (so to speak) she continually fails; and instead of +producing a volcanic eruption, produces only an earthquake. Of that +I may speak hereafter, and may tell you, in good time, how to +distinguish rocks which have been thrust in from beneath, from rocks +which have been laid down from above, as every rock between London +and Birmingham or Exeter has been laid down. That I only assert now. +But I do not wish you to take it on trust from me. I wish to prove +it to you as I go on, or to do what is far better for you: to put +you in the way of proving it for yourself, by using your common +sense. + +At the risk of seeming prolix, I must say a few more words on this +matter. I have special reasons for it. Until I can get you to "let +your thoughts play freely" round this question of the superposition +of soils and rocks, there will be no use in my going on with these +papers. + +Suppose then (to argue from the known to the unknown) that you were +watching men cleaning out a pond. Atop, perhaps, they would come to +a layer of soft mud, and under that to a layer of sand. Would not +common sense tell you that the sand was there first, and that the +water had laid down the mud on the top of it? Then, perhaps, they +might come to a layer of dead leaves. Would not common sense tell +you that the leaves were there before the sand above them? Then, +perhaps, to a layer of mud again. Would not common sense tell you +that the mud was there before the leaves? And so on down to the +bottom of the pond, where, lastly, I think common sense would tell +you that the bottom of the pond was there already, before all the +layers which were laid down on it. Is not that simple common sense? + +Then apply that reasoning to the soils and rocks in any spot on +earth. If you made a deep boring, and found, as you would in many +parts of this kingdom, that the boring, after passing through the +soil of the field, entered clays or loose sands, you would say the +clays were there before the soil. If it then went down into +sandstone, you would say--would you not?--that sandstone must have +been here before the clay; and however thick--even thousands of feet- +-it might be, that would make no difference to your judgment. If +next the boring came into quite different rocks; into a different +sort of sandstone and shales, and among them beds of coal, would you +not say--These coal-beds must have been here before the sandstones? +And if you found in those coal-beds dead leaves and stems of plants, +would you not say--Those plants must have been laid down here before +the layers above them, just as the dead leaves in the pond were? + +If you then came to a layer of limestone, would you not say the same? +And if you found that limestone full of shells and corals, dead, but +many of them quite perfect, some of the corals plainly in the very +place in which they grew, would you not say--These creatures must +have lived down here before the coal was laid on top of them? And +if, lastly, below the limestone you came to a bottom rock quite +different again, would you not say--The bottom rock must have been +here before the rocks on the top of it? + +And if that bottom rock rose up a few miles off, two thousand feet, +or any other height, into hills, what would you say then? Would you +say: "Oh, but the rock is not bottom rock; is not under the +limestone here, but higher than it. So perhaps in this part it has +made a shift, and the highlands are younger than the lowlands; for +see, they rise so much higher?" Would not that be as wise as to say +that the bottom of the pond was not there before the pond mud, +because the banks round the pond rose higher than the mud? + +Now for the soil of the field. + +If we can understand a little about it, what it is made of, and how +it got there, we shall perhaps be on the right road toward +understanding what all England--and, indeed, the crust of this whole +planet--is made of; and how its rocks and soils got there. + +But we shall best understand how the soil in the field was made, by +reasoning, as I have said, from the known to the unknown. What do I +mean? This: On the uplands are fields in which the soil is already +made. You do not know how? Then look for a field in which the soil +is still being made. There are plenty in every lowland. Learn how +it is being made there; apply the knowledge which you learn from them +to the upland fields which are already made. + +If there is, as there usually is, a river-meadow, or still better, an +aestuary, near your town, you have every advantage for seeing soil +made. Thousands of square feet of fresh-made soil spread between +your town and the sea; thousands more are in process of being made. + +You will see now why I have begun with the soil in the field; because +it is the uppermost, and therefore latest, of all the layers; and +also for this reason, that, if Sir Charles Lyell's theory be true--as +it is--then the soils and rocks below the soil of the field may have +been made in the very same way in which the soil of the field is +made. If so, it is well worth our while to examine it. + +You all know from whence the soil comes which has filled up, in the +course of ages, the great aestuaries below London, Stirling, Chester, +or Cambridge. + +It is river mud and sand. The river, helped by tributary brooks +right and left, has brought down from the inland that enormous mass. +You know that. You know that every flood and freshet brings a fresh +load, either of fine mud or of fine sand, or possibly some of it +peaty matter out of distant hills. Here is one indisputable fact +from which to start. Let us look for another. + +How does the mud get into the river? The rain carries it thither. + +If you wish to learn the first elements of geology by direct +experiment, do this: The next rainy day--the harder it rains the +better--instead of sitting at home over the fire, and reading a book +about geology, put on a macintosh and thick boots, and get away, I +care not whither, provided you can find there running water. If you +have not time to get away to a hilly country, then go to the nearest +bit of turnpike road, or the nearest sloping field, and see in little +how whole continents are made, and unmade again. Watch the rain +raking and sifting with its million delicate fingers, separating the +finer particles from the coarser, dropping the latter as soon as it +can, and carrying the former downward with it toward the sea. Follow +the nearest roadside drain where it runs into a pond, and see how it +drops the pebbles the moment it enters the pond, and then the sand in +a fan-shaped heap at the nearest end; but carries the fine mud on, +and holds it suspended, to be gradually deposited at the bottom in +the still water; and say to yourself: Perhaps the sands which cover +so many inland tracts were dropped by water, very near the shore of a +lake or sea, and by rapid currents. Perhaps, again, the brick clays, +which are often mingled with these sands, were dropped, like the mud +in the pond, in deeper water farther from the shore, and certainly in +stilt water. But more. Suppose once more, then, that looking and +watching a pond being cleared out, under the lowest layer of mud, you +found--as you would find in any of those magnificent reservoirs so +common in the Lancashire hills--a layer of vegetable soil, with grass +and brushwood rooted in it. What would you say but: The pond has +not been always full. It has at some time or other been dry enough +to let a whole copse grow up inside it? + +And if you found--as you will actually find along some English +shores--under the sand hills, perhaps a bed of earth with shells and +bones; under that a bed of peat; under that one of blue silt; under +that a buried forest, with the trees upright and rooted; under that +another layer of blue silt full of roots and vegetable fibre; perhaps +under that again another old land surface with trees again growing in +it; and under all the main bottom clay of the district--what would +common sense tell you? I leave you to discover for yourselves. It +certainly would not tell you that those trees were thrust in there by +a violent convulsion, or that all those layers were deposited there +in a few days, or even a few years; and you might safely indulge in +speculations about the antiquity of the aestuary, and the changes +which it has undergone, with which I will not frighten you at +present. + +It will be fair reasoning to argue thus. You may not be always right +in your conclusion, but still you will be trying fairly to explain +the unknown by the known. + +But have Rain and Rivers alone made the soil? + +How very much they have done toward making it you will be able to +judge for yourselves, if you will read the sixth chapter of Sir +Charles Lyell's new "Elements of Geology," or the first hundred pages +of that admirable book, De la Beche's "Geological Observer;" and +last, but not least, a very clever little book called "Rain and +Rivers," by Colonel George Greenwood. + +But though rain, like rivers, is a carrier of soil, it is more. It +is a maker of soil, likewise; and by it mainly the soil of an upland +field is made, whether it be carried down to the sea or not. + +If you will look into any quarry you will see that however compact +the rock may be a few feet below the surface, it becomes, in almost +every case, rotten and broken up as it nears the upper soil, till you +often cannot tell where the rock ends and the soil begins. + +Now this change has been produced by rain. First, mechanically, by +rain in the shape of ice. The winter rain gets into the ground, and +does by the rock what it has done by the stones of many an old +building. It sinks into the porous stone, freezes there, expands in +freezing, and splits and peels the stone with a force which is slowly +but surely crumbling the whole of Northern Europe and America to +powder. + +Do you doubt me? I say nothing but what you can judge of yourselves. +The next time you go up any mountain, look at the loose broken stones +with which the top is coated, just underneath the turf. What has +broken them up but frost? Look again, as stronger proof, at the +talus of broken stones--screes, as they call them in Scotland; +rattles, as we call them in Devon--which lie along the base of many +mountain cliffs. What has brought them down but frost? If you ask +the country folk they will tell you whether I am right or not. If +you go thither, not in the summer, but just after the winter's frost, +you will see for yourselves, by the fresh frost-crop of newly-broken +bits, that I am right. Possibly you may find me to be even more +right than is desirable, by having a few angular stones, from the +size of your head to that of your body, hurled at you by the frost- +giants up above. If you go to the Alps at certain seasons, and hear +the thunder of the falling rocks, and see their long lines--moraines, +as they are called--sliding slowly down upon the surface of the +glacier, then you will be ready to believe the geologist who tells +you that frost, and probably frost alone, has hewn out such a peak as +the Matterhorn from some vast table-land; and is hewing it down +still, winter after winter, till some day, where the snow Alps now +stand, there shall be rolling uplands of rich cultivable soil. + +So much for the mechanical action of rain, in the shape of ice. Now +a few words on its chemical action. + +Rain water is seldom pure. It carries in it carbonic acid; and that +acid, beating in shower after shower against the face of a cliff-- +especially if it be a limestone cliff--weathers the rock chemically; +changing (in case of limestone) the insoluble carbonate of lime into +a soluble bicarbonate, and carrying that away in water, which, +however clear, is still hard. Hard water is usually water which has +invisible lime in it; there are from ten to fifteen grains and more +of lime in every gallon of limestone water. I leave you to calculate +the enormous weight of lime which must be so carried down to the sea +every year by a single limestone or chalk brook. You can calculate +it, if you like, by ascertaining the weight of lime in each gallon, +and the average quantity of water which comes down the stream in a +day; and when your sum is done, you will be astonished to find it one +not of many pounds, but probably of many tons, of solid lime, which +you never suspected or missed from the hills around. Again, by the +time the rain has sunk through the soil, it is still less pure. It +carries with it not only carbonic acid, but acids produced by +decaying vegetables--by the roots of the grasses and trees which grow +above; and they dissolve the cement of the rock by chemical action, +especially if the cement be lime or iron. You may see this for +yourselves, again and again. You may see how the root of a tree, +penetrating the earth, discolours the soil with which it is in +contact. You may see how the whole rock, just below the soil, has +often changed in colour from the compact rock below, if the soil be +covered with a dense layer of peat or growing vegetables. + +But there is another force at work, and quite as powerful as rain and +rivers, making the soil of alluvial flats. Perhaps it has helped, +likewise, to make the soil of all the lowlands in these isles--and +that is, the waves of the sea. + +If you ever go to Parkgate, in Cheshire, try if you cannot learn +there a little geology. + +Walk beyond the town. You find the shore protected for a long way by +a sea-wall, lest it should be eaten away by the waves. What the +force of those waves can be, even on that sheltered coast, you may +judge--at least you could have judged this time last year--by the +masses of masonry torn from their iron clampings during the gale of +three winters since. Look steadily at those rolled blocks, those +twisted stanchions, if they are there still; and then ask yourselves- +-it will be fair reasoning from the known to the unknown--What effect +must such wave-power as that have had beating and breaking for +thousands of years along the western coasts of England, Scotland, +Ireland? It must have eaten up thousands of acres--whole shires, may +be, ere now. Its teeth are strong enough, and it knows neither rest +nor pity, the cruel hungry sea. Give it but time enough, and what +would it not eat up? It would eat up, in the course of ages, all the +dry land of this planet, were it not baffled by another counteracting +force, of which I shall speak hereafter. + +As you go on beyond the sea-wall, you find what it is eating up. The +whole low cliff is going visibly. But whither is it going? To form +new soil in the aestuary. Now you will not wonder how old harbours +so often become silted up. The sea has washed the land into them. +But more, the sea-currents do not allow the sands of the aestuary to +escape freely out to sea. They pile it up in shifting sand-banks +about the mouth of the aestuary. The prevailing sea-winds, from +whatever quarter, catch up the sand, and roll it up into sand-hills. +Those sand-hills are again eaten down by the sea, and mixed with the +mud of the tide-flats, and so is formed a mingled soil, partly of +clayey mud, partly of sand; such a soil as stretches over the greater +part of all our lowlands. + +Now, why should not that soil, whether in England or in Scotland, +have been made by the same means as that of every aestuary. + +You find over great tracts of East Scotland, Lancashire, Norfolk, +etc., pure loose sand just beneath the surface, which looks as if it +was blown sand from a beach. Is it not reasonable to suppose that it +is? You find rising out of many lowlands, crags which look exactly +like old sea-cliffs eaten by the waves, from the base of which the +waters have gone back. Why should not those crags be old sea-cliffs? +Why should we not, following our rule of explaining the unknown by +the known, assume that such they are till someone gives us a sound +proof that they are not; and say--These great plains of England and +Scotland were probably once covered by a shallow sea, and their soils +made as the soil of any tide-flat is being made now? + +But you may say, and most reasonably "The tide-flats are just at the +sea-level. The whole of the lowland is many feet above the sea; it +must therefore have been raised out of the sea, according to your +theory: and what proofs have you of that?" + +Well, that is a question both grand and deep, on which I shall not +enter yet; but meanwhile, to satisfy you that I wish to play fair +with you, I ask you to believe nothing but what you can prove for +yourselves. Let me ask you this: suppose that you had proof +positive that I had fallen into the river in the morning; would not +your meeting me in the evening be also proof positive that somehow or +other I had in the course of the day got out of the river? I think +you will accept that logic as sound. + +Now if I can give you proof positive, proof which you can see with +your own eyes, and handle with your own hands, and alas! often feel +but too keenly with your own feet, that the whole of the lowlands +were once beneath the sea; then will it not be certain that, somehow +or other, they must have been raised out of the sea again? + +And that I propose to do in my next paper, when I speak of the +pebbles in the street. + +Meanwhile I wish you to face fairly the truly grand idea, which all I +have said tends to prove true--that all the soil we see is made by +the destruction of older soils, whether soft as clay, or hard as +rock; that rain, rivers, and seas are perpetually melting and +grinding up old land, to compose new land out of it; and that it must +have been doing so, as long as rain, rivers, and seas have existed. +"But how did the first land of all get made?" I can only reply: A +natural question: but we can only answer that, by working from the +known to the unknown. While we are finding out how these later lands +were made and unmade, we may stumble on some hints as to how the +first primeval continents rose out of the bosom of the sea. + +And thus I end this paper. I trust it has not been intolerably dull. +But I wanted at starting to show my readers something of the right +way of finding out truth on this and perhaps on all subjects; to make +some simple appeals to your common sense; and to get you to accept +some plain rules founded on common sense, which will be of infinite +use to both you and me in my future papers. + +I hope, meanwhile, that you will agree with me, that there is plenty +of geological matter to be seen and thought over in the neighbourhood +of any town. + +Be sure, that wherever there is a river, even a drain; and a stone +quarry, or even a roadside bank; much more where there is a sea, or a +tidal aestuary, there is geology enough to be learnt, to explain the +greater part of the making of all the continents on the globe. + + + +II. THE PEBBLES IN THE STREET + + + +If you, dear reader, dwell in any northern town, you will almost +certainly see paving courts and alleys, and sometimes--to the +discomfort of your feet--whole streets, or set up as bournestones at +corners, or laid in heaps to be broken up for road-metal, certain +round pebbles, usually dark brown or speckled gray, and exceedingly +tough and hard. Some of them will be very large--boulders of several +feet in diameter. If you move from town to town, from the north of +Scotland as far down as Essex on the east, or as far down as +Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton (at least) on the west, you will still +find these pebbles, but fewer and smaller as you go south. It +matters not what the rocks and soils of the country round may be. +However much they may differ, these pebbles will be, on the whole, +the same everywhere. + +But if your town be south of the valley of the Thames, you will find, +as far as I am aware, no such pebbles there. The gravels round you +will be made up entirely of rolled chalk flints, and bits of beds +immediately above or below the chalk. The blocks of "Sarsden" +sandstone--those of which Stonehenge is built--and the "plum-pudding +stones" which are sometimes found with them, have no kindred with the +northern pebbles. They belong to beds above the chalk. + +Now if, seeing such pebbles about your town, you inquire, like a +sensible person who wishes to understand something of the spot on +which he lives, whence they come, you will be shown either a gravel- +pit or a clay-pit. In the gravel the pebbles and boulders lie mixed +with sand, as they do in the railway cutting just south of +Shrewsbury; or in huge mounds of fine sweet earth, as they do in the +gorge of the Tay about Dunkeld, and all the way up Strathmore, where +they form long grassy mounds--tomauns as they call them in some parts +of Scotland--askers as they call them in Ireland. These mounds, with +their sweet fresh turf rising out of heather and bog, were tenanted-- +so Scottish children used to believe--by fairies. He that was lucky +might hear inside them fairy music, and, the jingling of the fairy +horses' trappings. But woe to him if he fell asleep upon the mound, +for he would be spirited away into fairyland for seven years, which +would seem to him but one day. A strange fancy; yet not so strange +as the actual truth as to what these mounds are, and how they came +into their places. + +Or again, you might find that your town's pebbles and boulders came +out of a pit of clay, in which they were stuck, without any order or +bedding, like plums and raisins in a pudding. This clay goes usually +by the name of boulder-clay. You would see such near any town in +Cheshire and Lancashire; or along Leith shore, near Edinburgh; or, to +give one more instance out of hundreds, along the coast at +Scarborough. If you walk along the shore southward of that town, you +will see, in the gullies of the cliff, great beds of sticky clay, +stuffed full of bits of every rock between the Lake mountains and +Scarborough, from rounded pebbles of most ancient rock down to great +angular fragments of ironstone and coal. There, as elsewhere, the +great majority of the pebbles have nothing to do with the rock on +which the clay happens to lie, but have come, some of them, from +places many miles away. + +Now if we find spread over a low land pebbles composed of rocks which +are only found in certain high lands, is it not an act of common +sense to say--These pebbles have come from the highlands? And if the +pebbles are rounded, while the rocks like them in the highlands +always break off in angular shapes, is it not, again, an act of mere +common sense to say--These pebbles were once angular, and have been +rubbed round, either in getting hither or before they started hither? + +Does all this seem to you mere truism, my dear reader? If so, I am +sincerely glad to hear it. It was not so very long ago that such +arguments would have been considered not only no truisms, but not +even common sense. + +But to return, let us take, as an example, a sample of these boulder +clay pebbles from the neighbourhood of Liverpool and Birkenhead, made +by Mr. De Rance, the government geological surveyor: + +Granite, greenstone, felspar porphyry, felstone, quartz rock (all +igneous rocks, that is, either formed by, or altered by volcanic +heat, and almost all found in the Lake mountains), 37 per cent. + +Silurian grits (the common stones of the Lake mountains deposited by +water), 43 per cent. + +Ironstone, 1 per cent. + +Carboniferous limestone, 5 per cent. + +Permian or Triassic sandstones, i.e. rocks immediately round +Liverpool, 12 per cent. + +Now, does not this sample show, as far as human common sense can be +depended on, that the great majority of these stones come from the +Lake mountains, sixty or seventy miles north of Liverpool? I think +your common sense will tell you that these pebbles are not mere +concretions; that is, formed out of the substance of the clay after +it was deposited. The least knowledge of mineralogy would prove +that. But, even if you are no mineralogist, common sense will tell +you, that if they were all concreted out of the same clay, it is most +likely that they would be all of the same kind, and not of a dozen or +more different kinds. Common sense will tell you, also, that if they +were all concreted out of the same clay, it is a most extraordinary +coincidence, indeed one too strange to be believed, if any less +strange explanation can be found--that they should have taken the +composition of different rocks which are found all together in one +group of mountains to the northward. You will surely say--If this be +granite, it has most probably come from a granite mountain; if this +be grit, from a grit-stone mountain, and so on with the whole list. +Why--are we to go out of our way to seek improbable explanations, +when there is a probable one staring us in the face? + +Next--and this is well worth your notice--if you will examine the +pebbles carefully, especially the larger ones, you will find that +they are not only more or less rounded, but often scratched; and +often, too, in more than one direction, two or even three sets of +scratches crossing each other; marked, as a cat marks an elder stem +when she sharpens her claws upon it; and that these scratches have +not been made by the quarrymen's tools, but are old marks which +exist--as you may easily prove for yourself--while the stone is still +lying in its bed of clay. Would it not be an act of mere common +sense to say--These scratches have been made by the sharp points of +other stones which have rubbed against the pebbles somewhere, and +somewhen, with great force? + +So far so good. The next question is--How did these stones get into +the clay? If we can discover that, we may also discover how they +wore rounded and scratched. We must find a theory which will answer +our question; and one which, as Professor Huxley would say, "will go +on all-fours," that is, will explain all the facts of the case, and +not only a few of them. + +What, then, brought the stones? + +We cannot, I think, answer that question, as some have tried to +answer it, by saying that they were brought by Noah's flood. For it +is clear, that very violent currents of water would be needed to +carry boulders, some of them weighing many tons, for many miles. Now +Scripture says nothing of any such violent currents; and we have no +right to put currents, or any other imagined facts, into Scripture +out of our own heads, and then argue from them as if not we, but the +text of Scripture had asserted their existence. + +But still, they may have been rolled hither by water. That theory +certainly would explain their being rounded; though not their being +scratched. But it will not explain their being found in the clay. + +Recollect what I said in my first paper: that water drops its +pebbles and coarser particles first, while it carries the fine clayey +mud onward in solution, and only drops it when the water becomes +still. Now currents of such tremendous violence as to carry these +boulder stones onward, would have carried the mud for many miles +farther still; and we should find the boulders, not in clay, but +lying loose together, probably on a hard rock bottom, scoured clean +by the current. That is what we find in the beds of streams; that is +just what we do not find in this case. + +But the boulders may have been brought by a current, and then the +water may have become still, and the clay settled quietly round them. +What? Under them as well as over them? On that theory also we +should find them only at the bottom of the clay. As it is, we find +them scattered anywhere and everywhere through it, from top to +bottom. So that theory will not do. Indeed, no theory will do which +supposes them to have been brought by water alone. + +Try yourself, dear reader, and make experiments, with running water, +pebbles, and mud. If you try for seven years, I believe, you will +never contrive to make your pebbles lie about in your mud, as they +lie about in every pit in the boulder clay. + +Well then, there we are at fault, it seems. We have no explanation +drawn from known facts which will do--unless we are to suppose, which +I don't think you will do, that stones, clay, and all were blown +hither along the surface of the ground, by primeval hurricanes, ten +times worse than those of the West Indies, which certainly will roll +a cannon a few yards, but cannot, surely, roll a boulder stone a +hundred miles. + +Now, suppose that there was a force, an agent, known--luckily for +you, not to you--but known too well to sailors and travellers; a +force which is at work over the vast sheets of land at both the north +and south poles; at work, too, on every high mountain range in the +world, and therefore a very common natural force; and suppose that +this force would explain all the facts, namely-- + +How the stones got here; + +How they were scratched and rounded; + +How they were imbedded in clay; + +because it is notoriously, and before men's eyes now, carrying great +stones hundreds of miles, and scratching and rounding them also; +carrying vast deposits of mud, too, and mixing up mud and stones just +as we see them in the brick-pits,--Would not our common sense have a +right to try that explanation?--to suspect that this force, which we +do not see at work in Britain now, may have been at work here ages +since? That would at least be reasoning from the known to the +unknown. What state of things, then, do we find among the highest +mountains; and over whole countries which, though not lofty, lie far +enough north or south to be permanently covered with ice? + +We find, first, an ice-cap or ice-sheet, fed by the winter's snows, +stretching over the higher land, and crawling downward and outward by +its own weight, along the valleys, as glaciers. + +We find underneath the glaciers, first a moraine profonde, consisting +of the boulders and gravel, and earth, which the glacier has ground +off the hillsides, and is carrying down with it. + +These stones, of course, grind, scratch, and polish each other; and +in like wise grind, scratch, and polish the rock over which they +pass, under the enormous weight of the superincumbent ice. + +We find also, issuing from under each glacier a stream, carrying the +finest mud, the result of the grinding of the boulders against each +other and the glacier. + +We find, moreover, on the surface of the glaciers, moraines +superieures--long lines of stones and dirt which had fallen from +neighbouring cliffs, and are now travelling downward with the +glaciers. + +Their fate, if the glacier ends on land, is what was to be expected. +The stones from above the glacier fall over the ice-cliff at its end, +to mingle with those thrown out from underneath the glacier, and form +huge banks of boulders, called terminal moraines, while the mud runs +off, as all who have seen glaciers know, in a turbid torrent. + +Their fate, again, is what was to be expected if the glacier ends, as +it commonly does in Arctic regions, in the sea. The ice grows out to +sea-ward for more than a mile sometimes, about one-eighth of it being +above water, and seven-eighths below, so that an ice-cliff one +hundred feet high may project into water eight hundred feet deep. At +last, when it gets out of its depth, the buoyancy of the water breaks +it off in icebergs, which float away, at the mercy of tides and +currents, often grounding again in shallower water, and ploughing the +sea-bottom as they drag along it. These bergs carry stones and dirt, +often in large quantities; so that, whenever a berg melts or +capsizes, it strews its burden confusedly about the sea-floor. + +Meanwhile the fine mud which is flowing out from under the ice goes +out to sea likewise, colouring the water far out, and then subsiding +as a soft tenacious ooze, in which the stones brought out by the ice +are imbedded. And this ooze--so those who have examined it assert-- +cannot be distinguished from the brick-clay, or fossiliferous +boulder-clay, so common in the North. A very illustrious +Scandinavian explorer, visiting Edinburgh, declared, as soon as he +saw the sections of boulder-clay exhibited near that city, that this +was the very substance which he saw forming in the Spitzbergen ice- +fiords. {3} + +I have put these facts as simply and baldly as I can, in order that +the reader may look steadily at them, without having his attention +drawn off, or his fancy excited, by their real poetry and grandeur. +Indeed, it would have been an impertinence to have done otherwise; +for I have never seen a live glacier, by land or sea, though I have +seen many a dead one. And the public has had the opportunity, +lately, of reading so many delightful books about "peaks, passes, and +glaciers," that I am bound to suppose that many of my readers know as +much, or more, about them than I do. + +But let us go a step farther; and, bearing in our minds what live +glaciers are like, let us imagine what a dead glacier would be like; +a glacier, that is, which had melted, and left nothing but its +skeleton of stones and dirt. + +We should find the faces of the rock scored and polished, generally +in lines pointing down the valleys, or at least outward from the +centre of the highlands, and polished and scored most in their upland +or weather sides. We should find blocks of rock left behind, and +perched about on other rocks of a different kind. We should find in +the valleys the old moraines left as vast deposits of boulder and +shingle, which would be in time sawn through and sorted over by the +rivers. And if the sea-bottom outside were upheaved, and became dry +land, we should find on it the remains of the mud from under the +glacier, stuck full of stones and boulders iceberg-dropped. This mud +would be often very irregularly bedded; for it would have been +disturbed by the ploughing of the icebergs, and mixed here and there +with dirt which had fallen from them. Moreover, as the sea became +shallower and the mud-beds got awash one after the other, they would +be torn about, re-sifted, and re-shaped by currents and by tides, and +mixed with shore-sand ground out of shingle-beach, thus making +confusion worse confounded. A few shells, of an Arctic or northern +type, would be found in it here and there. Some would have lived +near those later beaches, some in deeper water in the ancient ooze, +wherever the iceberg had left it in peace long enough for sea-animals +to colonise and breed in it. But the general appearance of the dried +sea-bottom would be a dreary and lifeless waste of sands, gravels, +loose boulders, and boulder-bearing clays; and wherever a boss of +bare rock still stood up, it would be found ground down, and probably +polished and scored by the ponderous icebergs which had lumbered over +it in their passage out to sea. + +In a word, it would look exactly as vast tracts of the English, +Scotch, and Irish lowlands must have looked before returning +vegetation coated their dreary sands and clays with a layer of brown +vegetable soil. + +Thus, and I believe thus only, can we explain the facts connected +with these boulder pebbles. No agent known on earth can have stuck +them in the clay, save ice, which is known to do so still elsewhere. + +No known agent can have scratched them as they are scratched, save +ice, which is known to do so still elsewhere. + +No known agent--certainly not, in my opinion, the existing rivers-- +can have accumulated the vast beds of boulders which lie along the +course of certain northern rivers; notably along the Dee about +Aboyne--save ice bearing them slowly down from the distant summits of +the Grampians. + +No known agent, save ice, can have produced those rounded, and +polished, and scored, and fluted rochers moutonnes "sheep-backed +rocks"--so common in the Lake district; so common, too, in Snowdon, +especially between the two lakes of Llanberis; common in Kerry; to be +seen anywhere, as far as I have ascertained, around the Scotch +Highlands, where the turf is cleared away from an unweathered surface +of the rock, in the direction in which a glacier would have pressed +against it had one been there. Where these polishings and scorings +are found in narrow glens, it is, no doubt, an open question whether +some of them may not be the work of water. But nothing but the +action of ice can have produced what I have seen in land-locked and +quiet fords in Kerry--ice-flutings in polished rocks below high-water +mark, so large that I could lie down in one of them. Nothing but the +action of ice could produce what may be seen in any of our mountains- +-whole sheets of rock ground down into rounded flats, irrespective of +the lie of the beds, not in valleys, but on the brows and summits of +mountains, often ending abruptly at the edge of some sudden cliff, +where the true work of water, in the shape of rain and frost, is +actually destroying the previous work of ice, and fulfilling the rule +laid down (I think by Professor Geikie in his delightful book on +Scotch scenery as influenced by its geology), that ice planes down +into flats, while water saws out into crags and gullies; and that the +rain and frost are even now restoring Scotch scenery to something of +that ruggedness and picturesqueness which it must have lost when it +lay, like Greenland, under the indiscriminating grinding of a heavy +sheet of ice. + +Lastly; no known agent, save ice, will explain those perched +boulders, composed of ancient hard rocks, which may be seen in so +many parts of these islands and of the Continent. No water power +could have lifted those stones, and tossed them up high and dry on +mountain ridges and promontories, upon rocks of a totally different +kind. Some of my readers surely recollect Wordsworth's noble lines +about these mysterious wanderers, of which he had seen many a one +about his native hills: + + +As a huge stone is sometimes seen to lie +Couched on the bald top of an eminence, +Wonder to all who do the same espy +By what means it could thither come, and whence; +So that it seems a thing endued with sense: +Like a sea-beast crawled forth, that on a shelf +Of rock or sand reposeth, there to sun itself. + + +Yes; but the next time you see such a stone, believe that the wonder +has been solved, and found to be, like most wonders in Nature, more +wonderful than we guessed it to be. It is not a sea-beast which has +crawled forth, but an ice-beast which has been left behind; lifted up +thither by the ice, as surely as the famous Pierre-a-bot, forty feet +in diameter, and hundreds of boulders more, almost as large as +cottages, have been carried by ice from the distant Alps right across +the lake of Neufchatel, and stranded on the slopes of the Jura, nine +hundred feet above the lake. {4} + +Thus, I think, we have accounted for facts enough to make it probable +that Britain was once covered partly by an ice-sheet, as Greenland is +now, and partly, perhaps, by an icy sea. But, to make assurance more +sure, let us look for new facts, and try whether our ice-dream will +account for them also. Let us investigate our case as a good medical +man does, by "verifying his first induction." + +He says: At the first glance, I can see symptoms a, b, c. It is +therefore probable that my patient has got complaint A. But if he +has he ought to have symptom d also. If I find that, my guess will +be yet more probable. He ought also to have symptom e, and so forth; +and as I find successively each of these symptoms which are proper to +A, my first guess will become more and more probable, till it reaches +practical certainty. + +Now let us do the same, and say--If this strange dream be true, and +the lowlands of the North were once under an icy sea, ought we not to +find sea-shells in their sands and clays? Not abundantly, of course. +We can understand that the sea-animals would be too rapidly covered +up in mud, and too much disturbed by icebergs and boulders, to be +very abundant. But still, some should surely be found here and +there. + +Doubtless; and if my northern-town readers will search the boulder- +clay pits near them, they will most probably find a few shells, if +not in the clay itself, yet in sand-beds mixed with them, and +probably underlying them. And this is a notable fact, that the more +species of shells they find, the more they will find--if they work +out their names from any good book of conchology--of a northern type; +of shells which notoriously, at this day, inhabit the colder seas. + +It is impossible for me here to enter at length on a subject on which +a whole literature has been already written. Those who wish to study +it may find all that they need know, and more, in Lyell's "Student's +Elements of Geology," and in chapter xii. of his "Antiquity of Man." +They will find that if the evidence of scientific conchologists be +worth anything, the period can be pointed out in the strata, though +not of course in time, at which these seas began to grow colder, and +southern and Mediterranean shells to disappear, their places being +taken by shells of a temperate, and at last of an Arctic climate; +which last have since retreated either toward their native North, or +into cold water at great depths. From Essex across to Wales, from +Wales to the aestuary of the Clyde, this fact has been verified again +and again. And in the search for these shells, a fresh fact, and a +most startling one, was discovered. They are to be found not only in +the clay of the lowlands, but at considerable heights up the hills, +showing that, at some time or other, these hills have been submerged +beneath the sea. + +Let me give one example, which any tourist into Wales may see for +himself. Moel Tryfaen is a mountain over Carnarvon. Now perched on +the side of that mountain, fourteen hundred feet above the present +sea-level, is an ancient sea-beach, five-and-thirty feet thick, lying +on great ice-scratched boulders, which again lie on the mountain +slates. It was discovered by the late Mr. Trimmer, now, alas! lost +to Geology. Out of that beach fifty-seven different species of +shells have been taken; eleven of them are now exclusively Arctic, +and not found in our seas; four of them are still common to the +Arctic seas and to our own; and almost all the rest are northern +shells. + +Fourteen hundred feet above the present sea: and that, it must be +understood, is not the greatest height at which such shells may be +found hereafter. For, according to Professor Ramsay, drift of the +same kind as that on Moel Tryfaen is found at a height of two +thousand three hundred feet. + +Now I ask my readers to use their common sense over this astounding +fact--which, after all, is only one among hundreds; to let (as Mr. +Matthew Arnold would well say) their "thought play freely" about it; +and consider for themselves what those shells must mean. I say not +may, but must, unless we are to believe in a "Deus quidam deceptor," +in a God who puts shells upon mountain-sides only to befool honest +human beings, and gives men intellects which are worthless for even +the simplest work. Those shells must mean that that mountain, and +therefore the mountains round it, must have been once fourteen +hundred feet at least lower than they are now. That the sea in which +they were sunk was far colder than now. That icebergs brought and +dropped boulders round their flanks. That upon those boulders a sea- +beach formed, and that dead shells were beaten into it from a sea- +bottom close by. That, and no less, Moel Tryfaen must mean. + +But it must mean, also, a length of time which has been well called +"appalling." A length of time sufficient to let the mountain sink +into the sea. Then length of time enough to enable those Arctic +shells to crawl down from the northward, settle, and propagate +themselves generation after generation; then length of time enough to +uplift their dead remains, and the beach, and the boulders, and all +Snowdonia, fourteen hundred feet into the air. And if anyone should +object that the last upheaval may have been effected suddenly by a +few tremendous earthquakes, we must answer--We have no proof of it. +Earthquakes upheave lands now only by slight and intermittent upward +pulses; nay, some lands we know to rise without any earthquake +pulses, but by simple, slow, upward swelling of a few feet in a +century; and we have no reason, and therefore no right, to suppose +that Snowdonia was upheaved by any means or at any rate which we do +not witness now; and therefore we are bound to allow, not only that +there was a past "age of ice," but that that age was one of +altogether enormous duration. + +But meanwhile some of you, I presume, will be ready to cry--Stop! It +may be our own weakness; but you are really going on too fast and too +far for our small imaginations. Have you not played with us, as well +as argued with us, till you have inveigled us step by step into a +conclusion which we cannot and will not believe? That all this land +should have been sunk beneath an icy sea? That Britain should have +been as Greenland is now? We can't believe it, and we won't. + +If you say so, like stout common-sense Britons, who have a wholesome +dread of being taken in with fine words and wild speculations, I +assure you I shall not laugh at you even in private. On the +contrary, I shall say--what I am sure every scientific man will say-- +So much the better. That is the sort of audience which we want, if +we are teaching natural science. We do not want haste, enthusiasm, +gobe-moucherie, as the French call it, which is agape to snap up any +new and vast fancy, just because it is new and vast. We want our +readers to be slow, suspicious, conservative, ready to "gib," as we +say of a horse, and refuse the collar up a steep place, saying--I +must stop and think. I don't like the look of the path ahead of me. +It seems an ugly place to get up. I don't know this road, and I +shall not hurry over it. I must go back a few steps, and make sure. +I must see whether it is the right road; whether there are not other +roads, a dozen of them perhaps, which would do as well and better +than this. + +This is the temper which finds out truth, slowly, but once and for +all; and I shall be glad, not sorry, to see it in my readers. + +And I am bound to say that it has been by that temper that this +theory has been worked out, and the existence of this past age of +ice, or glacial epoch, has been discovered, through many mistakes, +many corrections, and many changes of opinion about details, for +nearly forty years of hard work, by many men, in many lands. + +As a very humble student of this subject, I may say that I have been +looking these facts in the face earnestly enough for more than twenty +years, and that I am about as certain that they can only be explained +by ice, as I am that my having got home by rail can only be explained +by steam. + +But I think I know what startles you. It is the being asked to +believe in such an enormous change in climate, and in the height of +the land above the sea. Well--it is very astonishing, appalling--all +but incredible, if we had not the facts to prove it. But of the +facts there can be no doubt. There can be no doubt that the climate +of this northern hemisphere has changed enormously more than once. +There can be no doubt that the distribution of land and water, the +shape and size of its continents and seas, have changed again and +again. There can be no doubt that, for instance, long before the age +of ice, the whole North of Europe was much warmer than it is now. + +Take Greenland, for instance. Disco Island lies in Baffin's Bay, off +the west coast of Greenland, in latitude 70 degrees, far within the +Arctic circle. Now there certain strata of rock, older than the ice, +have not been destroyed by the grinding of the ice-cap; and they are +full of fossil plants. But of what kind of plants? Of the same +families as now grow in the warmer parts of the United States. Even +a tulip-tree has been found among them. Now how is this to be +explained? + +Either we must say that the climate of Greenland was then so much +warmer than now, that it had summers probably as hot as those of New +York; or we must say that these leaves and stems were floated thither +from the United States. But if we say the latter, we must allow a +change in the shape of the land which is enormous. For nothing now +can float northward from the United States into Baffin's Bay. The +polar current sets OUT of Baffin's Bay southward, bringing icebergs +down, not leaves up, through Davis's Straits. And in any case we +must allow that the hills of Disco Island were then the bottom of a +sea: or how would the leaves have been deposited in them at all? + +So much for the change of climate and land which can be proved to +have gone on in Greenland. It has become colder. Why should it not +some day become warmer again? + +Now for England. It can be proved, as far as common sense can prove +anything, that England was, before the age of ice, much warmer than +it is now, and grew gradually cooler and cooler, just as, while the +age of ice was dying out, it grew warmer again. + +Now what proof is there of that? + +This. Underneath London--as, I dare say, many of you know--there +lies four or five hundred feet of clay. But not ice-clay. Anything +but that, as you will see. It belongs to a formation late +(geologically speaking), but somewhat older than those Disco Island +beds. + +And what sort of fossils do we find in it? + +In the first place, the shells, which are abundant, are tropical-- +Nautili, Cones, and such like. And more, fruits and seeds are found +in it, especially at the Isle of Sheppey. And what are they? Fruits +of Nipa palms, a form only found now at river-mouths in Eastern India +and the Indian islands; Anona-seeds; gourd-seeds; Acacia fruits--all +tropical again; and Proteaceous plants too--of an Australian type. +Surely your common sense would hint to you, that this London clay +must be mud laid down off the mouth of a tropical river. But your +common sense would be all but certain of that, when you found, as you +would find, the teeth and bones of crocodiles and turtles, who come +to land, remember, to lay their eggs; the bones, too, of large +mammals, allied to the tapir of India and South America, and the +water-hog of the Cape. If all this does not mean that there was once +a tropic climate and a tropic river running into some sea or other +where London now stands, I must give up common sense and reason as +deceitful and useless faculties; and believe nothing, not even the +evidence of my own senses. + +And now, have I, or have I not, fulfilled the promise which I made-- +rashly, I dare say some of you thought--in my first paper? Have I, +or have I not, made you prove to yourself, by your own common sense, +that the lowlands of Britain were underneath the sea in the days in +which these pebbles and boulders were laid down over your plains? +Nay, have we not proved more? Have we not found that that old sea +was an icy sea? Have we not wandered on, step by step, into a whole +true fairyland of wonders? to a time when all England, Scotland, and +Ireland were as Greenland is now? when mud streams have rushed down +from under glaciers on to a cold sea-bottom, when "ice, mast high, +came floating by, as green as emerald?" when Snowdon was sunk for at +least fourteen hundred feet of its height? when (as I could prove to +you, had I time) the peaks of the highest Cumberland and Scotch +mountains alone stood out, as islets in a frozen sea? + +We want to get an answer to one strange question, and we have found a +group of questions stranger still, and got them answered too. But so +it is always in science. We know not what we shall discover. But +this, at least, we know, that it will be far more wonderful than we +had dreamed. The scientific explorer is always like Saul of old, who +set out simply to find his father's asses, and found them--and a +kingdom besides. + +I should have liked to have told you more about this bygone age of +ice. I should have liked to say something to you on the curious +question--which is still an open one--whether there were not two ages +of ice; whether the climate here did not, after perhaps thousands of +years of Arctic cold, soften somewhat for a while--a few thousand +years, perhaps--and then harden again into a second age of ice, +somewhat less severe, probably, than the first. I should have liked +to have hinted at the probable causes of this change--indeed, of the +age of ice altogether--whether it was caused by a change in the +distribution of land and water, or by change in the height and size +of these islands, which made them large enough, and high enough, to +carry a sheet of eternal snow inland; or whether, finally, the age of +ice was caused by an actual change in the position of the whole +planet with regard to its orbit round the sun--shifting at once the +poles and the tropics; a deep question that latter, on which +astronomers, whose business it is, are still at work, and on which, +ere young folk are old, they will have discovered, I expect, some +startling facts. On that last question, I, being no astronomer, +cannot speak. But I should have liked to have said somewhat on +matters on which I have knowledge enough, at least, to teach you how +much there is to be learnt. I should have liked to tell the student +of sea-animals--how the ice-age helps to explain, and is again +explained by, the remarkable discoveries which Dr. Carpenter and Mr. +Wyville Thompson have just made, in the deep-sea dredgings in the +North Atlantic. I should have liked to tell the botanist somewhat of +the pro-glacial flora--the plants which lived here before the ice, +and lasted, some of them at least, through all those ages of fearful +cold, and linger still on the summits of Snowdon, and the highest +peaks of Cumberland and Scotland. I should have liked to have told +the lovers of zoology about the animals which lived before the ice-- +of the mammoth, or woolly elephant; the woolly rhinoceros, the cave +lion and bear, the reindeer, the musk oxen, the lemmings and the +marmots which inhabited Britain till the ice drove them out +southward, even into the South of France; and how as the ice +retreated, and the climate became tolerable once more, some of them-- +the mammoth and rhinoceros, the bison, the lion, and many another +mighty beast reoccupied our lowlands, at a time when the +hippopotamus, at least in summer, ranged freely from Africa and Spain +across what was then dry land between France and England, and fed by +the side of animals which have long since retreated to Norway and to +Canada. I should have liked to tell the archaeologist of the human +beings--probably from their weapons and their habits--of the same +race as the present Laplanders, who passed northward as the ice went +back, following the wild reindeer herds from the South of France into +our islands, which were no islands then, to be in their turn driven +northward by stronger races from the east and south. But space +presses, and I fear that I have written too much already. + +At least, I have turned over for you a few grand and strange pages in +the book of nature, and taught you, I hope, a key by which to +decipher their hieroglyphics. At least, I have, I trust, taught you +to look, as I do, with something of interest, even of awe, upon the +pebbles in the street. + + + +III. THE STONES IN THE WALL + + + +This is a large subject. For in the different towns of these +islands, the walls are built of stones of almost every age, from the +earliest to the latest; and the town-geologist may find a quite +different problem to solve in the nearest wall, on moving from one +town to another twenty miles off. All I can do, therefore, is to +take one set of towns, in the walls of which one sort of stones is +commonly found, and talk of them; taking care, of course, to choose a +stone which is widely distributed. And such, I think, we can find in +the so-called New Red sandstone, which, with its attendant marls, +covers a vast tract--and that a rich and busy one--of England. From +Hartlepool and the mouth of the Tees, down through Yorkshire and +Nottinghamshire; over the manufacturing districts of central England; +down the valley of the Severn; past Bristol and the Somersetshire +flats to Torquay in South Devon; up north-westward through Shropshire +and Cheshire; past Liverpool and northward through Lancashire; +reappearing again, north of the Lake mountains, about Carlisle and +the Scotch side of the Solway Frith, stretches the New Red sandstone +plain, from under which everywhere the coal-bearing rocks rise as +from a sea. It contains, in many places, excellent quarries of +building-stone; the most famous of which, perhaps, are the well-known +Runcorn quarries, near Liverpool, from which the old Romans brought +the material for the walls and temples of ancient Chester, and from +which the stone for the restoration of Chester Cathedral is being +taken at this day. In some quarters, especially in the north-west of +England, its soil is poor, because it is masked by that very boulder- +clay of which I spoke in my last paper. But its rich red marls, +wherever they come to the surface, are one of God's most precious +gifts to this favoured land. On them, one finds oneself at once in a +garden; amid the noblest of timber, wheat, roots, grass which is +green through the driest summers, and, in the western counties, +cider-orchards laden with red and golden fruit. I know, throughout +northern Europe, no such charming scenery, for quiet beauty and solid +wealth, as that of the New Red marls; and if I wished to show a +foreigner what England was, I should take him along them, from +Yorkshire to South Devon, and say--There. Is not that a country +worth living for,--and worth dying for if need be? + +Another reason which I have for dealing with the New Red sandstone is +this--that (as I said just now) over great tracts of England, +especially about the manufacturing districts, the town-geologist will +find it covered immediately by the boulder clay. + +The townsman, finding this, would have a fair right to suppose that +the clay was laid down immediately, or at least soon after, the +sandstones or marls on which it lies; that as soon as the one had +settled at the bottom of some old sea, the other settled on the top +of it, in the same sea. + +A fair and reasonable guess, which would in many cases, indeed in +most, be quite true. But in this case it would be a mistake. The +sandstone and marls are immensely older than the boulder-clay. They +are, humanly speaking, some four or five worlds older. + +What do I mean? This--that between the time when the one, and the +time when the other, was made, the British Islands, and probably the +whole continent of Europe, have changed four or five times; in shape; +in height above the sea, or depth below it; in climate; in the kinds +of plants and animals which have dwelt on them, or on their sea- +bottoms. And surely it is not too strong a metaphor, to call such +changes a change from an old world to a new one. + +Mind. I do not say that these changes were sudden or violent. It is +far more probable that they are only part and parcel of that vast but +slow change which is going on everywhere over our whole globe. I +think that will appear probable in the course of this paper. But +that these changes have taken place, is my main thesis. The fact I +assert; and I am bound to try and prove it. And in trying to do so, +I shall no longer treat my readers, as I did in the first two papers, +like children. I shall take for granted that they now understand +something of the method by which geological problems are worked out; +and can trust it, and me; and shall state boldly the conclusions of +geologists, only giving proof where proof is specially needed. + +Now you must understand that in England there are two great divisions +of these New Red sandstones, "Trias," as geologists call them. An +upper, called in Germany Keuper, which consists, atop, of the rich +red marl, below them, of sandstones, and of those vast deposits of +rock-salt, which have been long worked, and worked to such good +purpose, that a vast subsidence of land has just taken place near +Nantwich in Cheshire; and serious fears are entertained lest the town +itself may subside, to fill up the caverns below, from whence the +salt has been quarried. Underneath these beds again are those which +carry the building-stone of Runcorn. Now these beds altogether, in +Cheshire, at least, are about 3,400 feet thick; and were not laid +down in a year, or in a century either. + +Below them lies a thousand feet of sandstones, known in Germany by +the name of "Bunter," from its mottled and spotted appearance. What +lies under them again, does not concern us just now. + +I said that the geologists called these beds the Trias; that is, the +triple group. But as yet we have heard of only two parts of it. +Where is the third? + +Not here, but in Germany. There, between the Keuper above and the +Bunter below, lies a great series of limestone beds, which, from the +abundance of fossils which they contain, go by the name of +Muschelkalk. A long epoch must therefore have intervened between the +laying down of the Bunter and of the Keuper. And we have a trace of +that long epoch, even in England. The Keuper lies, certainly, +immediately on the Bunter; but not always "conformably" on it. That +is, the beds are not exactly parallel. The Bunter had been slightly +tilted, and slightly waterworn, before the Keuper was laid on it. + +It is reasonable, therefore, to suppose, that the Bunter in England +was dry land, and therefore safe from fresh deposit, through ages +during which it was deep enough beneath the sea in Germany, to have +the Muschelkalk laid down on it. Here again, then, as everywhere, we +have evidence of time--time, not only beyond all counting, but beyond +all imagining. + +And now, perhaps, the reader will ask--If I am to believe that all +new land is made out of old land, and that all rocks and soils are +derived from the wear and tear of still older rocks, off what land +came this enormous heap of sands more than 5,000 feet thick in +places, stretching across England and into Germany? + +It is difficult to answer. The shape and distribution of land in +those days were so different from what they are now, that the rocks +which furnished a great deal of our sandstone may be now, for aught I +know, a mile beneath the sea. + +But over the land which still stands out of the sea near us there has +been wear and tear enough to account for any quantity of sand +deposit. As a single instance--It is a provable and proven fact--as +you may see from Mr. Ramsay's survey of North Wales--that over a +large tract to the south of Snowdon, between Port Madoc and Barmouth, +there has been ground off and carried away a mass of solid rock +20,000 feet thick; thick enough, in fact, if it were there still, to +make a range of mountains as high as the Andes. It is a provable and +proven fact that vast tracts of the centre of poor old Ireland were +once covered with coal-measures, which have been scraped off in +likewise, deprived of inestimable mineral wealth. The destruction of +rocks--"denudation" as it is called--in the district round Malvern, +is, I am told, provably enormous. Indeed, it is so over all Wales, +North England, and West and North Scotland. So there is enough of +rubbish to be accounted for to make our New Red sands. The round +pebbles in it being, I believe, pieces of Old Red sandstone, may have +come from the great Old Red sandstone region of South East Wales and +Herefordshire. Some of the rubbish, too, may have come from what is +now the Isle of Anglesey. + +For you find in the beds, from the top to the bottom (at least in +Cheshire), particles of mica. Now this mica could not have been +formed in the sand. It is a definite crystalline mineral, whose +composition is well known. It is only found in rocks which have been +subjected to immense pressure, and probably to heat. The granites +and mica-slates of Anglesey are full of it; and from Anglesey--as +likely as from anywhere else--these thin scales of mica came. And +that is about all that I can say on the matter. But it is certain +that most of these sands were deposited in a very shallow water, and +very near to land. Sand and pebbles, as I said in my first paper, +could not be carried far out to sea; and some of the beds of the +Bunter are full of rounded pebbles. Nay, it is certain that their +surface was often out of water. Of that you may see very pretty +proofs. You find these sands ripple-marked, as you do shore-sands +now. You find cracks where the marl mud has dried in the sun: and, +more, you find the little pits made by rain. Of that I have no +doubt. I have seen specimens, in which you could not only see at a +glance that the marks had been made by the large drops of a shower, +but see also from what direction the shower had come. These delicate +markings must have been covered up immediately with a fresh layer of +mud or sand. How long since? How long since that flag had seen the +light of the sun, when it saw it once again, restored to the upper +air by the pick of the quarryman? Who can answer that? Not I. + +Fossils are very rare in these sands; it is not easy to say why. It +may be that the red oxide of iron in them has destroyed them. Few or +none are ever found in beds in which it abounds. It is curious, too, +that the Keuper, which is all but barren of fossils in England, is +full of them in Wurtemberg, reptiles, fish, and remains of plants +being common. But what will interest the reader are the footprints +of a strange beast, found alike in England and in Germany--the +Cheirotherium, as it was first named, from its hand-like feet; the +Labyrinthodon, as it is now named, from the extraordinary structure +of its teeth. There is little doubt now, among anatomists, that the +bones and teeth of the so-called Labyrinthodon belong to the animal +which made the footprints. If so, the creature must have been a +right loathly monster. Some think him to have been akin to lizards; +but the usual opinion is that he was a cousin of frogs and toads. +Looking at his hands and other remains, one pictures him to oneself +as a short, squat brute, as big as a fat hog, with a head very much +the shape of a baboon, very large hands behind and small ones in +front, waddling about on the tide flats of a sandy sea, and dragging +after him, seemingly, a short tail, which has left its mark on the +sand. What his odour was, whether he was smooth or warty, what he +ate, and in general how he got his living, we know not. But there +must have been something there for him to eat; and I dare say that he +was about as happy and about as intellectual as the toad is now. +Remember always that there is nothing alive now exactly like him, or, +indeed, like any animal found in these sandstones. The whole animal +world of this planet has changed entirely more than once since the +Labyrinthodon waddled over the Cheshire flats. A lizard, for +instance, which has been found in the Keuper, had a skull like a +bird's, and no teeth--a type which is now quite extinct. But there +is a more remarkable animal of which I must say a few words, and one +which to scientific men is most interesting and significant. + +Both near Warwick, and near Elgin in Scotland, in Central India, and +in South Africa, fossil remains are found of a family of lizards +utterly unlike anything now living save one, and that one is crawling +about, plentifully I believe--of all places in the world--in New +Zealand. How it got there; how so strange a type of creature should +have died out over the rest of the world, and yet have lasted on in +that remote island for long ages, ever since the days of the New Red +sandstone, is one of those questions--quite awful questions I +consider them--with which I will not puzzle my readers. I only +mention it to show them what serious questions the scientific man has +to face, and to answer, if he can. Only the next time they go to the +Zoological Gardens in London, let them go to the reptile-house, and +ask the very clever and courteous attendant to show them the +Sphenodons, or Hatterias, as he will probably call them--and then +look, I hope with kindly interest, at the oldest Conservatives they +ever saw, or are like to see; gentlemen of most ancient pedigree, who +have remained all but unchanged, while the whole surface of the globe +has changed around them more than once or twice. + +And now, of course, my readers will expect to hear something of the +deposits of rock-salt, for which Cheshire and its red rocks are +famous. I have never seen them, and can only say that the salt does +not, it is said by geologists, lie in the sandstone, but at the +bottom of the red marl which caps the sandstone. It was formed most +probably by the gradual drying up of lagoons, such as are depositing +salt, it is said now, both in the Gulf of Tadjara, on the Abyssinian +frontier opposite Aden, and in the Runn of Cutch, near the Delta of +the Indus. If this be so, then these New Red sandstones may be the +remains of a whole Sahara--a sheet of sandy and all but lifeless +deserts, reaching from the west of England into Germany, and rising +slowly out of the sea; to sink, as we shall find, beneath the sea +again. + +And now, as to the vast period of time--the four or five worlds, as I +called it--which elapsed between the laying down of the New Red +sandstones and the laying down of the boulder-clays. + +I think this fact--for fact it is--may be better proved by taking +readers an imaginary railway journey to London from any spot in the +manufacturing districts of central England--begging them, meanwhile, +to keep their eyes open on the way. + +And here I must say that I wish folks in general would keep their +eyes a little more open when they travel by rail. When I see young +people rolling along in a luxurious carriage, their eyes and their +brains absorbed probably in a trashy shilling novel, and never lifted +up to look out of the window, unconscious of all that they are +passing--of the reverend antiquities, the admirable agriculture, the +rich and peaceful scenery, the like of which no country upon earth +can show; unconscious, too, of how much they might learn of botany +and zoology, by simply watching the flowers along the railway banks +and the sections in the cuttings: then it grieves me to see what +little use people make of the eyes and of the understanding which God +has given them. They complain of a dull journey: but it is not the +journey which is dull; it is they who are dull. Eyes have they, and +see not; ears have they, and hear not; mere dolls in smart clothes, +too many of them, like the idols of the heathen. + +But my readers, I trust, are of a better mind. So the next time they +find themselves running up southward to London--or the reverse way-- +let them keep their eyes open, and verify, with the help of a +geological map, the sketch which is given in the following pages. + +Of the "Black Countries"--the actual coal districts I shall speak +hereafter. They are in England either shores or islands yet +undestroyed, which stand out of the great sea of New Red sandstone, +and often carry along their edges layers of far younger rocks, called +now Permian, from the ancient kingdom of Permia, in Russia, where +they cover a vast area. With them I will not confuse the reader just +now, but will only ask him to keep his eye on the rolling plain of +New Red sands and marls past, say, Birmingham and Warwick. After +those places, these sands and marls dip to the south-east, and other +rocks and soils appear above them, one after another, dipping +likewise towards the south-east--that is, toward London. + +First appear thin layers of a very hard blue limestone, full of +shells, and parted by layers of blue mud. That rock runs in a broad +belt across England, from Whitby in Yorkshire, to Lyme in +Dorsetshire, and is known as Lias. Famous it is, as some readers may +know, for holding the bones of extinct monsters--Ichthyosaurs and +Plesiosaurs, such as the unlearned may behold in the lake at the +Crystal Palace. On this rock lie the rich cheese pastures, and the +best tracts of the famous "hunting shires" of England. + +Lying on it, as we go south-eastward, appear alternate beds of sandy +limestone, with vast depths of clay between them. These "oolites," +or freestones, furnish the famous Bath stone, the Oxford stone, and +the Barnack stone of Northamptonshire, of which some of the finest +cathedrals are built--a stone only surpassed, I believe, by the Caen +stone, which comes from beds of the same age in Normandy. These +freestones and clays abound in fossils, but of kinds, be it +remembered, which differ more and more from those of the lias +beneath, as the beds are higher in the series, and therefore nearer. +There, too, are found principally the bones of that extraordinary +flying lizard, the Pterodactyle, which had wings formed out of its +fore-legs, on somewhat the same plan as those of a bat, but with one +exception. In the bat, as any one may see, four fingers of the hand +are lengthened to carry the wing, while the first alone is left free, +as a thumb: but in the Pterodactyle, the outer or "little" finger +alone is lengthened, and the other four fingers left free--one of +those strange instances in nature of the same effect being produced +in widely different plants and animals, and yet by slightly different +means, on which a whole chapter of natural philosophy--say, rather, +natural theology--will have to be written some day. + +But now consider what this Lias, and the Oolites and clays upon it +mean. They mean that the New Red sandstone, after it had been dry +land, or all but dry land (as is proved by the footprints of animals +and the deposits of salt), was sunk again beneath the sea. Each +deposit of limestone signifies a long period of time, during which +that sea was pure enough to allow reefs of coral to grow, and shells +to propagate, at the bottom. Each great band of clay signifies a +long period, during which fine mud was brought down from some wasting +land in the neighbourhood. And that land was not far distant is +proved by the bones of the Pterodactyle, of Crocodiles, and of +Marsupials; by the fact that the shells are of shallow-water or shore +species; by the presence, mixed with them, of fragments of wood, +impressions of plants, and even wing-shells of beetles; and lastly, +if further proof was needed, by the fact that in the "dirt-bed" of +the Isle of Portland and the neighbouring shores, stumps of trees +allied to the modern sago-palms are found as they grew in the soil, +which, with them, has been covered up in layers of freshwater shale +and limestone. A tropic forest has plainly sunk beneath a lagoon; +and that lagoon, again, beneath the sea. + +And how long did this period of slow sinking go on? Who can tell? +The thickness of the Lias and Oolites together cannot be less than a +thousand feet. Considering, then, the length of time required to lay +down a thousand feet of strata, and considering the vast difference +between the animals found in them, and the few found in the New Red +sandstone, we have a right to call them another world, and that one +which must have lasted for ages. + +After we pass Oxford, or the Vale of Aylesbury, we enter yet another +world. We come to a bed of sand, under which the freestones and +their adjoining clays dip to the south-east. This is called commonly +the lower Greensand, though it is not green, but rich iron-red. Then +succeeds a band of stiff blue clay, called the Gault, and then +another bed of sand, the upper Greensand, which is more worthy of the +name, for it does carry, in most places, a band of green or +"glauconite" sand. But it and the upper layers of the lower +Greensand also, are worth our attention; for we are all probably +eating them from time to time in the form of bran. + +It had been long remarked that certain parts of these beds carried +admirable wheatland; it had been remarked, too, that the finest hop- +lands--those of Farnham, for instance, and Tunbridge--lay upon them: +but that the fertile band was very narrow; that, as in the Surrey +Moors, vast sheets of the lower Greensand were not worth cultivation. +What caused the striking difference? + +My beloved friend and teacher, the late Dr. Henslow, when Professor +of Botany at Cambridge, had brought to him by a farmer (so the story +ran) a few fossils. He saw, being somewhat of a geologist and +chemist, that they were not, as fossils usually are, carbonate of +lime, but phosphate of lime--bone-earth. He said at once, as by an +inspiration, "You have found a treasure--not a gold-mine, indeed, but +a food-mine. This is bone-earth, which we are at our wits' end to +get for our grain and pulse; which we are importing, as expensive +bones, all the way from Buenos Ayres. Only find enough of them, and +you will increase immensely the food supply of England, and perhaps +make her independent of foreign phosphates in case of war." + +His advice was acted on; for the British farmer is by no means the +stupid personage which townsfolk are too apt to fancy him. This bed +of phosphates was found everywhere in the Greensand, underlying the +Chalk. It may be traced from Dorsetshire through England to +Cambridge, and thence, I believe, into Yorkshire. It may be traced +again, I believe, all round the Weald of Kent and Sussex, from Hythe +to Farnham--where it is peculiarly rich--and so to Eastbourne and +Beachey Head; and it furnishes, in Cambridgeshire, the greater part +of those so-called "coprolites," which are used perpetually now for +manure, being ground up, and then treated with sulphuric acid, till +they become a "soluble super-phosphate of lime." + +So much for the useless "hobby," as some fancy it, of poking over old +bones and stones, and learning a little of the composition of this +earth on which God has placed us. + +How to explain the presence of this vast mass of animal matter, in +one or two thin bands right across England, I know not. That the +fossils have been rolled on a sea-beach is plain to those who look at +them. But what caused so vast a destruction of animal life along +that beach, must remain one of the buried secrets of the past. + +And now we are fast nearing another world, which is far younger than +that coprolite bed, and has been formed under circumstances the most +opposite to it. We are nearing, by whatever rail we approach London, +the escarpment of the chalk downs. + +All readers, surely, know the white chalk, the special feature and +the special pride of the south of England. All know its softly- +rounded downs, its vast beech woods, its short and sweet turf, its +snowy cliffs, which have given--so some say--to the whole island the +name of Albion--the white land. But all do not, perhaps, know that +till we get to the chalk no single plant or animal has been found +which is exactly like any plant or animal now known to be living. +The plants and animals grow, on the whole, more and more like our +living forms as we rise in the series of beds. But only above the +chalk (as far as we yet know) do we begin to find species identical +with those living now. + +This in itself would prove a vast lapse of time. We shall have a +further proof of that vast lapse when we examine the chalk itself. +It is composed--of this there is now no doubt--almost entirely of the +shells of minute animalcules; and animalcules (I use an unscientific +word for the sake of unscientific readers) like these, and in some +cases identical with them, are now forming a similar deposit of mud, +at vast depths, over the greater part of the Atlantic sea-floor. +This fact has been put out of doubt by recent deep-sea dredgings. A +whole literature has been written on it of late. Any reader who +wishes to know it, need only ask the first geologist he meets; and if +he has the wholesome instinct of wonder in him, fill his imagination +with true wonders, more grand and strange than he is like to find in +any fairy tale. All I have to do with the matter here is, to say +that, arguing from the known to the unknown, from the Atlantic deep- +sea ooze which we do know about, to the chalk which we do not know +about, the whole of the chalk must have been laid down at the bottom +of a deep and still ocean, far out of the reach of winds, tides, and +even currents, as a great part of the Atlantic sea-floor is at this +day. + +Prodigious! says the reader. And so it is. Prodigious to think that +that shallow Greensand shore, strewed with dead animals, should sink +to the bottom of an ocean, perhaps a mile, perhaps some four miles +deep. Prodigious the time during which it must have lain as a still +ocean-floor. For so minute are the living atomies which form the +ooze, that an inch, I should say, is as much as we can allow for +their yearly deposit; and the chalk is at least a thousand feet +thick. It may have taken, therefore, twelve thousand years to form +the chalk alone. A rough guess, of course, but one as likely to be +two or three times too little as two or three times too big. Such, +or somewhat such, is the fact. It had long been suspected, and more +than suspected; and the late discoveries of Dr. Carpenter and Mr. +Wyville Thompson have surely placed it beyond doubt. + +Thus, surely, if we call the Oolitic beds one new world above the New +Red sandstone, we must call the chalk a second new world in like +wise. + +I will not trouble the reader here with the reasons why geologists +connect the chalk with the greensands below it, by regular +gradations, in spite of the enormous downward leap, from sea-shore to +deep ocean, which the beds seem (but only seem) to have taken. The +change--like all changes in geology--was probably gradual. Not by +spasmodic leaps and starts, but slowly and stately, as befits a God +of order, of patience, and of strength, have these great deeds been +done. + +But we have not yet done with new worlds or new prodigies on our way +to London, as any Londoner may ascertain for himself, if he will run +out a few miles by rail, and look in any cutting or pit, where the +surface of the chalk, and the beds which lie on it, are exposed. + +On the chalk lie--especially in the Blackheath and Woolwich district- +-sands and clays. And what do they tell us? + +Of another new world, in which the chalk has been lifted up again, to +form gradually, doubtless, and at different points in succession, the +shore of a sea. + +But what proof is there of this? + +The surface of the chalk is not flat and smooth, as it must have been +when at the bottom of the sea. It is eaten out into holes and +furrows, plainly by the gnawing of the waves; and on it lie, in many +places, large rolled flints out of chalk which has been destroyed, +beds of shore-shingle, beds of oysters lying as they grew, fresh or +brackish water-shells standing as they lived, bits of lignite (fossil +wood half turned to coal), and (as in Katesgrove pits at Reading) +leaves of trees. Proof enough, one would say, that the chalk had +been raised till part of it at least became dry land, and carried +vegetation. + +And yet we have not done. There is another world to tell of yet. + +For these beds (known as the Woolwich and Reading beds) dip under +that vast bed of London clay, four hundred and more feet thick, which +(as I said in my last chapter) was certainly laid down by the estuary +of some great tropic river, among palm-trees and Anonas, crocodiles +and turtles. + +Is the reader's power of belief exhausted? + +If not: there are to be seen, capping almost every high land round +London, the remains of a fifth world. Some of my readers may have +been to Ascot races, or to Aldershot camp, and may recollect the +table-land of the sandy moors, perfectly flat atop, dreary enough to +those to whom they are not (as they have long been to me) a home and +a work-field. Those sands are several hundred feet thick. They lie +on the London clay. And they represent--the reader must take +geologists' word for it--a series of beds in some places thousands of +feet thick, in the Isle of Wight, in the Paris basin, in the volcanic +country of the Auvergne, in Switzerland, in Italy; a period during +which the land must at first have swarmed with forms of tropic life, +and then grown--but very gradually--more temperate, and then colder +and colder still; till at last set in that age of ice, which spread +the boulder pebbles over all rocks and soils indiscriminately, from +the Lake mountains to within a few miles of London. + +For everywhere about those Ascot moors, the top of the sands has been +ploughed by shore-ice in winter, as they lay a-wash in the shallow +sea; and over them, in many places, is spread a thin sheet of ice +gravel, more ancient, the best geologists think, than the boulder and +the boulder-clay. + +If any of my readers ask how long the period was during which those +sands of Ascot Heath and Aldershot have been laid down, I cannot +tell. But this we can tell. It was long enough to see such changes +in land and sea, that maps representing Europe during the greater +part of that period (as far as we can guess at it) look no more like +Europe than like America or the South Sea Islands. And this we can +tell besides: that that period was long enough for the Swiss Alps to +be lifted up at least 10,000 feet of their present height. And that +was a work which--though God could, if He willed it, have done it in +a single day--we have proof positive was not done in less than ages, +beside which the mortal life of man is as the life of the gnat which +dances in the sun. + +And all this, and more--as may be proved from the geology of foreign +countries--happened between the date of the boulder-clay, and that of +the New Red sandstone on which it rests. + + + +IV. THE COAL IN THE FIRE + + + +My dear town-dwelling readers, let me tell you now something of a +geological product well known, happily, to all dwellers in towns, and +of late years, thanks to railroad extension, to most dwellers in +country districts: I mean coal. + +Coal, as of course you know, is commonly said to be composed of +vegetable matter, of the leaves and stems of ancient plants and +trees--a startling statement, and one which I do not wish you to take +entirely on trust. I shall therefore spend a few pages in showing +you how this fact--for fact it is--was discovered. It is a very good +example of reasoning from the known to the unknown. You will have a +right to say at first starting, "Coal is utterly different in look +from leaves and stems. The only property which they seem to have in +common is that they can both burn." True. But difference of mere +look may be only owing to a transformation, or series of +transformations. There are plenty in nature quite as great, and +greater. What can be more different in look, for instance, than a +green field of wheat and a basket of loaves at the baker's? And yet +there is, I trust, no doubt whatsoever that the bread has been once +green wheat, and that the green wheat has been transformed into +bread--making due allowance, of course, for the bone-dust, or gypsum, +or alum with which the worthy baker may have found it profitable to +adulterate his bread, in order to improve the digestion of Her +Majesty's subjects. + +But you may say, "Yes, but we can see the wheat growing, flowering, +ripening, reaped, ground, kneaded, baked. We see, in the case of +bread, the processes of the transformation going on: but in the case +of coal we do not see the wood and leaves being actually transformed +into coal, or anything like it." + +Now suppose we laid out the wheat on a table in a regular series, +such as you may see in many exhibitions of manufactures; beginning +with the wheat plant at one end, and ending with the loaf at the +other; and called in to look at them a savage who knew nothing of +agriculture and nothing of cookery--called in, as an extreme case, +the man in the moon, who certainly can know nothing of either; for as +there is neither air nor water round the moon, there can be nothing +to grow there, and therefore nothing to cook--and suppose we asked +him to study the series from end to end. Do you not think that the +man in the moon, if he were half as shrewd as Crofton Croker makes +him in his conversation with Daniel O'Rourke, would answer after due +meditation, "How the wheat plant got changed into the loaf I cannot +see from my experience in the moon: but that it has been changed, +and that the two are the same thing I do see, for I see all the +different stages of the change." And so I think you may say of the +wood and the coal. + +The man in the moon would be quite reasonable in his conclusion; for +it is a law, a rule, and one which you will have to apply again and +again in the study of natural objects, that however different two +objects may look in some respects, yet if you can find a regular +series of gradations between them, with all shades of likeness, first +to one of them and then to the other, then you have a fair right to +suppose them to be only varieties of the same species, the same kind +of thing, and that, therefore, they have a common origin. + +That sounds rather magniloquent. Let me give you a simple example. + +Suppose you had come into Britain with Brute, the grandson of AEneas, +at that remote epoch when (as all archaeologists know who have duly +read Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Arthuric legends) Britain was +inhabited only by a few giants. Now if you had met giants with one +head, and also giants with seven heads, and no others, you would have +had a right to say, "There are two breeds of giants here, one-headed +and seven-headed." But if you had found, as Jack the Giant-Killer +(who belongs to the same old cycle of myths) appears to have found, +two-headed giants also, and three-headed, and giants, indeed, with +any reasonable number of heads, would you not have been justified in +saying, "They are all of the same breed, after all; only some are +more capitate, or heady, than others!" + +I hope that you agree to that reasoning; for by it I think we arrive +most surely at a belief in the unity of the human race, and that the +Negro is actually a man and a brother. + +If the only two types of men in the world were an extreme white type, +like the Norwegians, and an extreme black type, like the Negros, then +there would be fair ground for saying, "These two types have been +always distinct; they are different races, who have no common +origin." But if you found, as you will find, many types of man +showing endless gradations between the white man and the Negro, and +not only that, but endless gradations between them both and a third +type, whose extreme perhaps is the Chinese--endless gradations, I +say, showing every conceivable shade of resemblance or difference, +till you often cannot say to what type a given individual belongs; +and all of them, however different from each other, more like each +other than they are like any other creature upon earth; then you are +justified in saying, "All these are mere varieties of one kind. +However distinct they are now, they were probably like each other at +first, and therefore all probably had a common origin." That seems +to me sound reasoning, and advanced natural science is corroborating +it more and more daily. + +Now apply the same reasoning to coal. You may find about the world-- +you may see even in England alone--every gradation between coal and +growing forest. You may see the forest growing in its bed of +vegetable mould; you may see the forest dead and converted into peat, +with stems and roots in it; that, again, into sunken forests, like +those to be seen below high-water mark on many coasts of this island. +You find gradations between them and beds of lignite, or wood coal; +then gradations between lignite and common or bituminous coal; and +then gradations between common coal and culm, or anthracite, such as +is found in South Wales. Have you not a right to say, "These are all +but varieties of the same kind of thing--namely, vegetable matter? +They have a common origin--namely, woody fibre. And coal, or rather +culm, is the last link in a series of transformations from growing +vegetation?" + +This is our first theory. Let us try to verify it, as scientific men +are in the habit of doing, by saying, If that be true, then something +else is likely to be true too. + +If coal has all been vegetable soil, then it is likely that some of +it has not been quite converted into shapeless coal. It is likely +that there will be vegetable fibre still to be seen here and there; +perhaps leaves, perhaps even stems of trees, as in a peat bog. Let +us look for them. + +You will not need to look far. The coal, and the sands and shales +which accompany the coal, are so full of plant-remains, that three +hundred species were known to Adolphe Brongniart as early as 1849, +and that number has largely increased since. + +Now one point is specially noticeable about these plants of the coal; +namely, that they may at least have grown in swamps. + +First, you will be interested if you study the coal flora, with the +abundance, beauty, and variety of the ferns. Now ferns in these +islands grow principally in rocky woods, because there, beside the +moisture, they get from decaying vegetable or decaying rock, +especially limestone, the carbonic acid which is their special food, +and which they do not get on our dry pastures, and still less in our +cultivated fields. But in these islands there are two noble species, +at least, which are true swamp-ferns; the Lastraea Thelypteris, which +of old filled the fens, but is now all but extinct; and the Osmunda, +or King-fern, which, as all know, will grow wherever it is damp +enough about the roots. In Hampshire, in Devon, and Cornwall, and in +the southwest of Ireland, the King-fern too is a true swamp fern. +But in the Tropics I have seen more than once noble tree-ferns +growing in wet savannahs at the sea-level, as freely as in the +mountain-woods; ferns with such a stem as some of the coal ferns had, +some fifteen feet in height, under which, as one rode on horseback, +one saw the blazing blue sky, as through a parasol of delicate lace, +as men might have long ages since have seen it, through the plumed +fronds of the ferns now buried in the coal, had there only been a man +then created to enjoy its beauty. + +Next we find plants called by geologists Calamites. There is no +doubt now that they are of the same family as our Equiseta, or horse- +tails, a race which has, over most parts of the globe, dwindled down +now from twenty or thirty feet in height, as they were in the old +coal measures, to paltry little weeds. The tallest Equisetum in +England--the beautiful E. Telmateia--is seldom five feet high. But +they, too, are mostly mud and swamp plants; and so may the Calamites +have been. + +The Lepidodendrons, again, are without doubt the splendid old +representatives of a family now dwindled down to such creeping things +as our club-mosses, or Lycopodiums. Now it is a certain fact, which +can be proved by the microscope, that a very great part of the best +coal is actually made up of millions of the minute seeds of club- +mosses, such as grow--a few of them, and those very small--on our +moors; a proof, surely, not only of the vast amount of the vegetation +in the coal-making age, but also of the vast time during which it +lasted. The Lepidodendra may have been fifty or sixty feet high. +There is not a Lycopodium in the world now, I believe, five feet +high. But the club-mosses are now, in these islands and elsewhere, +lovers of wet and peaty soils, and so may their huger prototypes have +been, in the old forests of the coal. + +Of the Sigillariae we cannot say as much with certainty, for +botanists are not agreed as to what low order of flowerless plants +they belong. But that they rooted in clay beds there is proof, as +you will hear presently. + +And as to the Conifers, or pine-like trees--the Dadoxylon, of which +the pith goes by the name of Sternbergia, and the uncertain tree +which furnishes in some coal-measures bushels of a seed connected +with that of the yew--we may suppose that they would find no more +difficulty in growing in swamps than the cypress, which forms so +large a portion of the vegetation in the swamps of the Southern +United States. + +I have given you these hints, because you will naturally wish to know +what sort of a world it was in which all these strange plants grew +and turned into coal. + +My answer is, that it was most probably just like the world in which +we are living now, with the one exception that the plants and animals +are different. + +It was the fashion a few years since to explain the coal--like other +phenomena of geology--by some mere hypothesis of a state of things +quite unlike what we see now. We were brought up to believe that in +the Carboniferous, or coal-bearing era, the atmosphere was intensely +moist and hot, and overcharged with carbonic acid, which had been +poured out from the interior of the planet by volcanic eruptions, or +by some other convulsion. I forget most of it now: and really there +is no need to remember; for it is all, I verily believe, a dream--an +attempt to explain the unknown not by the known, but by the still +more unknown. You may find such theories lingering still in +sensational school-books, if you like to be unscientific. If you +like, on the other hand, to be scientific you will listen to those +who tell you that instead of there having been one unique +carboniferous epoch, with a peculiar coal-making climate, all epochs +are carboniferous if they get the chance; that coal is of every age, +from that of the Scotch and English beds, up to the present day. The +great coal-beds along the Rocky Mountains, for instance, are +tertiary--that is, later than the chalk. Coal is forming now, I +doubt not, in many places on the earth, and would form in many more, +if man did not interfere with the processes of wild nature, by +draining the fens, and embanking the rivers. + +Let me by a few words prove this statement. They will give you, +beside, a fresh proof of Sir Charles Lyell's great geological rule-- +that the best way to explain what we see in ancient rocks is to take +for granted, as long as we can do so fairly, that things were going +on then very much as they are going on now. + +When it was first seen that coal had been once vegetable, the +question arose--How did all these huge masses of vegetable matter get +there? The Yorkshire and Derbyshire coal-fields, I hear, cover 700 +or 800 square miles; the Lancashire about 200. How large the North +Wales and the Scotch fields are I cannot say. But doubtless a great +deal more coal than can be got at lies under the sea, especially in +the north of Wales. Coal probably exists over vast sheets of England +and France, buried so deeply under later rocks, that it cannot be +reached by mining. As an instance, a distinguished geologist has +long held that there are beds of coal under London itself, which +rise, owing to a peculiar disturbance of the strata, to within 1,000 +or 1,200 feet of the surface, and that we or our children may yet see +coal-mines in the marshes of the Thames. And more, it is a provable +fact that only a portion of the coal measures is left. A great part +of Ireland must once have been covered with coal, which is now +destroyed. Indeed, it is likely that the coal now known of in Europe +and America is but a remnant of what has existed there in former +ages, and has been eaten away by the inroads of the sea. + +Now whence did all that enormous mass of vegetable soil come? Off +some neighbouring land, was the first and most natural answer. It +was a rational one. It proceeded from the known to the unknown. It +was clear that these plants had grown on land; for they were land- +plants. It was clear that there must have been land close by, for +between the beds of coal, as you all know, the rock is principally +coarse sandstone, which could only have been laid down (as I have +explained to you already) in very shallow water. + +It was natural, then, to suppose that these plants and trees had been +swept down by rivers into the sea, as the sands and muds which buried +them had been. And it was known that at the mouths of certain +rivers--the Mississippi, for instance--vast rafts of dead floating +trees accumulated; and that the bottoms of the rivers were often full +of snags, etc.; trees which had grounded, and stuck in the mud; and +why should not the coal have been formed in the same way? + +Because--and this was a serious objection--then surely the coal would +be impure--mixed up with mud and sand, till it was not worth burning. +Instead of which, the coal is usually pure vegetable, parted sharply +from the sandstone which lies on it. The only other explanation was, +that the coal vegetation had grown in the very places where it was +found. But that seemed too strange to be true, till that great +geologist, Sir W. Logan--who has since done such good work in Canada- +-showed that every bed of coal had a bed of clay under it, and that +that clay always contained fossils called Stigmaria. Then it came +out that the Stigmaria in the under clay had long filaments attached +to them, while when found in the sandstones or shales, they had lost +their filaments, and seemed more or less rolled--in fact, that the +natural place of the Stigmaria was in the under clay. Then Mr. +Binney discovered a tree--a Sigillaria, standing upright in the coal- +measures with its roots attached. Those roots penetrated into the +under clay of the coal; and those roots were Stigmarias. That seems +to have settled the question. The Sigillarias, at least, had grown +where they were found, and the clay beneath the coal-beds was the +original soil on which they had grown. Just so, if you will look at +any peat bog you will find it bottomed by clay, which clay is pierced +everywhere by the roots of the moss forming the peat, or of the +trees, birches, alders, poplars, and willows, which grow in the bog. +So the proof seemed complete, that the coal had been formed out of +vegetation growing where it was buried. If any further proof for +that theory was needed, it would be found in this fact, most +ingeniously suggested by Mr. Boyd Dawkins. The resinous spores, or +seeds of the Lepidodendra make up--as said above--a great part of the +bituminous coal. Now those spores are so light, that if the coal had +been laid down by water, they would have floated on it, and have been +carried away; and therefore the bituminous coal must have been +formed, not under water, but on dry land. + +I have dwelt at length on these further arguments, because they seem +to me as pretty a specimen as I can give my readers of that regular +and gradual induction, that common-sense regulated, by which +geological theories are worked out. + +But how does this theory explain the perfect purity of the coal? I +think Sir C. Lyell answers that question fully in p. 383 of his +"Student's Elements of Geology." He tells us that the dense growths +of reeds and herbage which encompass the margins of forest-covered +swamps in the valley and delta of the Mississippi, in passing through +them, are filtered and made to clear themselves entirely before they +reach the areas in which vegetable matter may accumulate for +centuries, forming coal if the climate be favourable; and that in the +cypress-swamps of that region no sediment mingles with the vegetable +matter accumulated from the decay of trees and semi-aquatic plants; +so that when, in a very dry season, the swamp is set on fire, pits +are burnt into the ground many feet deep, or as far as the fire can +go down without reaching water, and scarcely any earthy residuum is +left; just as when the soil of the English fens catches fire, red-hot +holes are eaten down through pure peat till the water-bearing clay +below is reached. But the purity of the water in peaty lagoons is +observable elsewhere than in the delta of the Mississippi. What can +be more transparent than many a pool surrounded by quaking bogs, +fringed, as they are in Ireland, with a ring of white water-lilies, +which you dare not stoop to pick, lest the peat, bending inward, +slide you down into that clear dark gulf some twenty feet in depth, +bottomed and walled with yielding ooze, from which there is no +escape? Most transparent, likewise, is the water of the West Indian +swamps. Though it is of the colour of coffee, or rather of dark +beer, and so impregnated with gases that it produces fever or cholera +when drunk, yet it is--at least when it does not mingle with the salt +water--so clear, that one might see every marking on a boa- +constrictor or alligator, if he glided along the bottom under the +canoe. + +But now comes the question--Even if all this be true, how were the +forests covered up in shale and sandstone, one after another? + +By gradual sinking of the land, one would suppose. + +If we find, as we may find in a hundred coal-pits, trees rooted as +they grew, with their trunks either standing up through the coal, and +through the sandstone above the coal; their bark often remaining as +coal while their inside is filled up with sandstone, has not our +common-sense a right to say--The land on which they grew sank below +the water-line; the trees were killed; and the mud and sand which +were brought down the streams enveloped their trunks? As for the +inside being full of sandstone, have we not all seen hollow trees? +Do we not all know that when a tree dies its wood decays first, its +bark last? It is so, especially in the Tropics. There one may see +huge dead trees with their bark seemingly sound, and their inside a +mere cavern with touchwood at the bottom; into which caverns one used +to peep with some caution. For though one might have found inside +only a pair of toucans, or parrots, or a whole party of jolly little +monkeys, one was quite as likely to find a poisonous snake four or +five feet long, whose bite would have very certainly prevented me +having the pleasure of writing this book. + +Now is it not plain that if such trees as that sunk, their bark would +be turned into lignite, and at last into coal, while their insides +would be silted up with mud and sand? Thus a core or pillar of hard +sandstone would be formed, which might do to the collier of the +future what they are too apt to do now in the Newcastle and Bristol +collieries. For there, when the coal is worked out below, the +sandstone stems--"coal-pipes" as the colliers call them--in the roof +of the seam, having no branches, and nothing to hold them up but +their friable bark of coal, are but too apt to drop out suddenly, +killing or wounding the hapless men below. + +Or again, if we find--as we very often find--as was found at +Parkfield Colliery, near Wolverhampton, in the year 1814--a quarter +of an acre of coal-seam filled. with stumps of trees as they grew, +their trunks broken off and lying in every direction, turned into +coal, and flattened, as coal-fossils so often are, by the weight of +the rock above--should we not have a right to say--These trees were +snapped off where they grew by some violent convulsion; by a storm, +or by a sudden inrush of water owing to a sudden sinking of the land, +or by the very earthquake shock itself which sank the land? + +But what evidence have we of such sinkings? The plain fact that you +have coal-seam above coal-seam, each with its bed of under-clay; and +that therefore the land MUST have sunk ere the next bed of soil could +have been deposited, and the next forest have grown on it. + +In one of the Rocky Mountain coal-fields there are more than thirty +seams of coal, each with its under-clay below it. What can that mean +but thirty or more subsidences of the land, and the peat of thirty or +more forests or peat-mosses, one above the other? And now if any +reader shall say, Subsidence? What is this quite new element which +you have brought into your argument? You told us that you would +reason from the known to the unknown. What do we know of subsidence? +You offered to explain the thing which had gone on once by that which +is going on now. Where is subsidence going on now upon the surface +of our planet? And where, too, upheaval, such as would bring us +these buried forests up again from under the sea-level, and make +them, like our British coal-field, dry land once more? + +The answer is--Subsidence and elevation of the land are common now, +probably just as common as they were in any age of this planet's +history. + +To give two instances, made now notorious by the writings of +geologists. As lately as 1819 a single earthquake shock in Cutch, at +the mouth of the Indus, sunk a tract of land larger than the Lake of +Geneva in some places to a depth of eighteen feet, and converted it +into an inland sea. The same shock raised, a few miles off, a +corresponding sheet of land some fifty miles in length, and in some +parts sixteen miles broad, ten feet above the level of the alluvial +plain, and left it to be named by the country-people the "Ullah +Bund," or bank of God, to distinguish it from the artificial banks in +the neighbourhood. + +Again: in the valley of the Mississippi--a tract which is now, it +would seem, in much the same state as central England was while our +coal-fields were being laid down--the earthquakes of 1811-12 caused +large lakes to appear suddenly in many parts of the district, amid +the dense forests of cypress. One of these, the "Sunk Country," near +New Madrid, is between seventy and eighty miles in length, and thirty +miles in breadth, and throughout it, as late as 1846, "dead trees +were conspicuous, some erect in the water, others fallen, and strewed +in dense masses over the bottom, in the shallows, and near the +shore." I quote these words from Sir Charles Lyell's "Principles of +Geology" (11th edit.), vol. i. p. 453. And I cannot do better than +advise my readers, if they wish to know more of the way in which coal +was formed, to read what is said in that book concerning the Delta of +the Mississippi, and its strata of forests sunk where they grew, and +in some places upraised again, alternating with beds of clay and +sand, vegetable soil, recent sea-shells, and what not, forming, to a +depth of several hundred feet, just such a mass of beds as exists in +our own coal-fields at this day. + +If, therefore, the reader wishes to picture to himself the scenery of +what is now central England, during the period when our coal was +being laid down, he has only, I believe, to transport himself in +fancy to any great alluvial delta, in a moist and warm climate, +favourable to the growth of vegetation. He has only to conceive +wooded marshes, at the mouth of great rivers, slowly sinking beneath +the sea; the forests in them killed by the water, and then covered up +by layers of sand, brought down from inland, till that new layer +became dry land, to carry a fresh crop of vegetation. He has thus +all that he needs to explain how coal-measures were formed. I myself +saw once a scene of that kind, which I should be sorry to forget; for +there was, as I conceived, coal, making, or getting ready to be made, +before my eyes: a sheet of swamp, sinking slowly into the sea; for +there stood trees, still rooted below high-water mark, and killed by +the waves; while inland huge trees stood dying, or dead, from the +water at their roots. But what a scene--a labyrinth of narrow +creeks, so narrow that a canoe could not pass up, haunted with +alligators and boa-constrictors, parrots and white herons, amid an +inextricable confusion of vegetable mud, roots of the alder-like +mangroves, and tangled creepers hanging from tree to tree; and +overhead huge fan-palms, delighting in the moisture, mingled with +still huger broad-leaved trees in every stage of decay. The drowned +vegetable soil of ages beneath me; above my head, for a hundred feet, +a mass of stems and boughs, and leaves and flowers, compared with +which the richest hothouse in England was poor and small. But if the +sinking process which was going on continued a few hundred years, all +that huge mass of wood and leaf would be sunk beneath the swamp, and +covered up in mud washed down from the mountains, and sand driven in +from the sea; to form a bed many feet thick, of what would be first +peat, then lignite, and last, it may be, coal, with the stems of +killed trees standing up out of it into the new mud and sand-beds +above it, just as the Sigillariae and other stems stand up in the +coal-beds both of Britain and of Nova Scotia; while over it a fresh +forest would grow up, to suffer the same fate--if the sinking process +went on--as that which had preceded it. + +That was a sight not easily to be forgotten. But we need not have +gone so far from home, at least, a few hundred years ago, to see an +exactly similar one. The fens of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, before +the rivers were embanked, the water pumped off, the forests felled, +and the reed-beds ploughed up, were exactly in the same state. The +vast deposits of peat between Cambridge and the sea, often filled +with timber-trees, either fallen or upright as they grew, and often +mixed with beds of sand or mud, brought down in floods, were formed +in exactly the same way; and if they had remained undrained, then +that slow sinking, which geologists say is going on over the whole +area of the Fens, would have brought them gradually, but surely, +below the sea-level, to be covered up by new forests, and converted +in due time into coal. And future geologists would have found--they +may find yet, if, which God forbid, England should become barbarous +and the trees be thrown out of cultivation--instead of fossil +Lepidodendra and Sigillariae, Calamites and ferns, fossil ashes and +oaks, alders and poplars, bulrushes and reeds. Almost the only +fossil fern would have been that tall and beautiful Lastraea +Thelypteris, once so abundant, now all but destroyed by drainage and +the plough. + +We need not, therefore, fancy any extraordinary state of things on +this planet while our English coal was being formed. The climate of +the northern hemisphere--Britain, at least, and Nova Scotia--was +warmer than now, to judge from the abundance of ferns; and especially +of tree-ferns; but not so warm, to judge from the presence of +conifers (trees of the pine tribe), as the Tropics. Moreover, there +must have been, it seems to me, a great scarcity of animal-life. +Insects are found, beautifully preserved; a few reptiles, too, and +land-shells; but very few. And where are the traces of such a +swarming life as would be entombed were a tropic forest now sunk; +which is found entombed in many parts of our English fens? The only +explanation which I can offer is this--that the club-mosses, tree- +ferns, pines, and other low-ranked vegetation of the coal afforded +little or no food for animals, as the same families of plants do to +this day; and if creatures can get nothing to eat, they certainly +cannot multiply and replenish the earth. But, be that as it may, the +fact that coal is buried forest is not affected. + +Meanwhile, the shape and arrangements of sea and land must have been +utterly different from what they are now. Where was that great land, +off which great rivers ran to deposit our coal-measures in their +deltas? It has been supposed, for good reasons, that north-western +France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany were then under the sea; that +Denmark and Norway were joined to Scotland by a continent, a tongue +of which ran across the centre of England, and into Ireland, dividing +the northern and southern coal-fields. But how far to the west and +north did that old continent stretch? Did it, as it almost certainly +did long ages afterwards, join Greenland and North America with +Scotland and Norway? Were the northern fields of Nova Scotia, which +are of the same geological age as our own, and contain the same +plants, laid down by rivers which ran off the same continent as ours? +Who can tell now? That old land, and all record of it, save what +these fragmentary coal-measures can give, are buried in the dark +abyss of countless ages; and we can only look back with awe, and +comfort ourselves with the thought--Let Time be ever so vast, yet +Time is not Eternity. + +One word more. If my readers have granted that all for which I have +argued is probable, they will still have a right to ask for further +proof. + +They will be justified in saying: "You say that coal is transformed +vegetable matter; but can you show us how the transformation takes +place? Is it possible according to known natural laws?" + +The chemist must answer that. And he tells us that wood can become +lignite, or wood-coal, by parting with its oxygen, in the shape of +carbonic acid gas, or choke-damp; and then common or bituminous coal, +by parting with its hydrogen, chiefly in the form of carburetted +hydrogen--the gas with which we light our streets. That is about as +much as the unscientific reader need know. But it is a fresh +corroboration of the theory that coal has been once vegetable fibre, +for it shows how vegetable fibre can, by the laws of nature, become +coal. And it certainly helps us to believe that a thing has been +done, if we are shown that it can be done. + +This fact explains, also, why in mines of wood-coal carbonic acid, +i.e. choke-damp, alone is given off. For in the wood-coal a great +deal of the hydrogen still remains. In mines of true coal, not only +is choke-damp given off, but that more terrible pest of the miners, +fire-damp, or explosive carburetted hydrogen and olefiant gases. Now +the occurrence of that fire-damp in mines proves that changes are +still going on in the coal: that it is getting rid of its hydrogen, +and so progressing toward the state of anthracite or culm--stone-coal +as it is sometimes called. In the Pennsylvanian coal-fields some of +the coal has actually done this, under the disturbing force of +earthquakes; for the coal, which is bituminous, like our common coal, +to the westward where the strata are horizontal, becomes gradually +anthracite as it is tossed and torn by the earthquake faults of the +Alleghany and Appalachian mountains. + +And is a further transformation possible? Yes; and more than one. +If we conceive the anthracite cleared of all but its last atoms of +oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, till it has become all but pure +carbon, it would become--as it has become in certain rocks of immense +antiquity, graphite--what we miscall black-lead. And, after that, it +might go through one transformation more, and that the most startling +of all. It would need only perfect purification and crystallisation +to become--a diamond; nothing less. We may consider the coal upon +the fire as the middle term of a series, of which the first is live +wood, and the last diamond; and indulge safely in the fancy that +every diamond in the world has probably, at some remote epoch, formed +part of a growing plant. + +A strange transformation; which will look to us more strange, more +truly poetical, the more steadily we consider it. + +The coal on the fire; the table at which I write--what are they made +of? Gas and sunbeams; with a small percentage of ash, or earthy +salts, which need hardly be taken into account. + +Gas and sunbeams. Strange, but true. + +The life of the growing plant--and what that life is who can tell?-- +laid hold of the gases in the air and in the soil; of the carbonic +acid, the atmospheric air, the water--for that too is gas. It drank +them in through its rootlets: it breathed them in through its leaf- +pores, that it might distil them into sap, and bud, and leaf, and +wood. But it has to take in another element, without which the +distillation and the shaping could never have taken place. It had to +drink in the sunbeams--that mysterious and complex force which is for +ever pouring from the sun, and making itself partly palpable to our +senses as heat and light. So the life of the plant seized the +sunbeams, and absorbed them, buried them in itself--no longer as +light and heat, but as invisible chemical force, locked up for ages +in that woody fibre. + +So it is. Lord Lytton told us long ago, in a beautiful song, how + + +The Wind and the Beam loved the Rose. + + +But Nature's poetry was more beautiful than man's. The wind and the +beam loved the rose so well that they made the rose--or rather, the +rose took the wind and the beam, and built up out of them, by her own +inner life, her exquisite texture, hue, and fragrance. + +What next? The rose dies; the timber tree dies; decays down into +vegetable fibre, is buried, and turned to coal: but the plant cannot +altogether undo its own work. Even in death and decay it cannot set +free the sunbeams imprisoned in its tissue. The sun-force must stay, +shut up age after age, invisible, but strong; working at its own +prison-cells; transmuting them, or making them capable of being +transmuted by man, into the manifold products of coal--coke, +petroleum, mineral pitch, gases, coal-tar, benzole, delicate aniline +dyes, and what not, till its day of deliverance comes. + +Man digs it, throws it on the fire, a black, dead-seeming lump. A +corner, an atom of it, warms till it reaches the igniting point; the +temperature at which it is able to combine with oxygen. + +And then, like a dormant live thing, awaking after ages to the sense +of its own powers, its own needs, the whole lump is seized, atom +after atom, with an infectious hunger for that oxygen which it lost +centuries since in the bottom of the earth. It drinks the oxygen in +at every pore; and burns. + +And so the spell of ages is broken. The sun-force bursts its prison- +cells, and blazes into the free atmosphere, as light and heat once +more; returning in a moment into the same forms in which it entered +the growing leaf a thousand centuries since. + +Strange it all is, yet true. But of nature, as of the heart of man, +the old saying stands--that truth is stranger than fiction. + + + +V. THE LIME IN THE MORTAR + + + +I shall presume in all my readers some slight knowledge about lime. +I shall take for granted, for instance, that all are better informed +than a certain party of Australian black fellows were a few years +since. + +In prowling on the track of a party of English settlers, to see what +they could pick up, they came--oh joy!--on a sack of flour, dropped +and left behind in the bush at a certain creek. The poor savages had +not had such a prospect of a good meal for many a day. With endless +jabbering and dancing, the whole tribe gathered round the precious +flour-bag with all the pannikins, gourds, and other hollow articles +it could muster, each of course with a due quantity of water from the +creek therein, and the chief began dealing out the flour by handfuls, +beginning of course with the boldest warriors. But, horror of +horrors, each man's porridge swelled before his eyes, grew hot, +smoked, boiled over. They turned and fled, man, woman, and child, +from before that supernatural prodigy; and the settlers coming back +to look for the dropped sack, saw a sight which told the whole tale. +For the poor creatures, in their terror, had thrown away their pans +and calabashes, each filled with that which it was likely to contain, +seeing that the sack itself had contained, not flour, but quick-lime. +In memory of which comi-tragedy, that creek is called to this day, +"Flour-bag Creek." + +Now I take for granted that you are all more learned than these black +fellows, and know quick-lime from flour. But still you are not bound +to know what quick-lime is. Let me explain it to you. + +Lime, properly speaking, is a metal, which goes among chemists by the +name of calcium. But it is formed, as you all know, in the earth, +not as a metal, but as a stone, as chalk or limestone, which is a +carbonate of lime; that is, calcium combined with oxygen and +carbonic-acid gases. + +In that state it will make, if it is crystalline and hard, excellent +building stone. The finest white marble, like that of Carrara in +Italy, of which the most delicate statues are carved, is carbonate of +lime altered and hardened by volcanic heat. But to make mortar of +it, it must be softened and then brought into a state in which it can +be hardened again; and ages since, some man or other, who deserves to +rank as one of the great inventors, one of the great benefactors of +his race, discovered the art of making lime soft and hard again; in +fact of making mortar. The discovery was probably very ancient; and +made, probably like most of the old discoveries, in the East, +spreading Westward gradually. The earlier Greek buildings are +cyclopean, that is, of stone fitted together without mortar. The +earlier Egyptian buildings, though the stones are exquisitely squared +and polished, are put together likewise without mortar. So, long +ages after, were the earlier Roman buildings, and even some of the +later. The famous aqueduct of the Pont du Gard, near Nismes, in the +south of France, has, if I recollect right, no mortar whatever in it. +The stones of its noble double tier of circular arches have been +dropped into their places upon the wooden centres, and stand unmoved +to this day, simply by the jamming of their own weight; a miracle of +art. But the fact is puzzling; for these Romans were the best mortar +makers of the world. We cannot, I believe, surpass them in the art +even now; and in some of their old castles, the mortar is actually to +this day harder and tougher than the stones which it holds together. +And they had plenty of lime at hand if they had chosen to make +mortar. The Pont du Gard crosses a limestone ravine, and is itself +built of limestone. But I presume the cunning Romans would not trust +mortar made from that coarse Nummulite limestone, filled with gritty +sand, and preferred, with their usual carefulness, no mortar at all +to bad. + +But I must return, and tell my readers, in a few words, the chemical +history of mortar. If limestone be burnt, or rather roasted, in a +kiln, the carbonic acid is given off--as you may discover by your own +nose; as many a poor tramp has discovered too late, when, on a cold +winter night, he has lain down by the side of the burning kiln to +keep himself warm, and woke in the other world, stifled to death by +the poisonous fumes. + +The lime then gives off its carbonic acid, and also its water of +crystallisation, that is, water which it holds (as do many rocks) +locked up in it unseen, and only to be discovered by chemical +analysis. It is then anhydrous--that is, waterless--oxide of lime, +what we call quick-lime; that which figured in the comi-tragedy of +"Flour-bag Creek;" and then, as you may find if you get it under your +nails or into your eyes, will burn and blister like an acid. + +This has to be turned again into a hard and tough artificial +limestone, in plain words, into mortar; and the first step is to +slack it--that is, to give it back the water which it has lost, and +for which it is as it were thirsting. So it is slacked with water, +which it drinks in, heating itself and the water till it steams and +swells in bulk, because it takes the substance of the water into its +own substance. Slacked lime, as we all know, is not visibly wetter +than quick-lime; it crumbles to a dry white powder in spite of all +the water which it contains. + +Then it must be made to set, that is, to return to limestone, to +carbonate of lime, by drinking in the carbonic acid from water and +air, which some sorts of lime will do instantly, setting at once, and +being therefore used as cements. But the lime usually employed must +be mixed with more or less sand to make it set hard: a mysterious +process, of which it will be enough to tell the reader that the sand +and lime are said to unite gradually, not only mechanically, that is, +by sticking together; but also in part chemically--that is, by +forming out of themselves a new substance, which is called silicate +of lime. + +Be that as it may, the mortar paste has now to do two things; first +to dry, and next to take up carbonic acid from the air and water, +enough to harden it again into limestone: and that it will take some +time in doing. A thick wall, I am informed, requires several years +before it is set throughout, and has acquired its full hardness, or +rather toughness; and good mortar, as is well known, will acquire +extreme hardness with age, probably from the very same cause that it +did when it was limestone in the earth. For, as a general rule, the +more ancient the strata is in which the limestone is found, the +harder the limestone is; except in cases where volcanic action and +earthquake pressure have hardened limestone in more recent strata, as +in the case of the white marbles of Carrara in Italy, which are of +the age of our Oolites, that is, of the freestone of Bath, etc., +hardened by the heat of intruded volcanic rocks. + +But now: what is the limestone? and how did it get where it is--not +into the mortar, I mean, but into the limestone quarry? Let me tell +you, or rather, help you to tell yourselves, by leading you, as +before, from the known to the unknown. Let me lead you to places +unknown indeed to most; but there may be sailors or soldiers among my +readers who know them far better than I do. Let me lead you, in +fancy, to some island in the Tropic seas. After all, I am not +leading you as far away as you fancy by several thousand miles, as +you will see, I trust, ere I have done. + +Let me take you to some island: what shall it be like? Shall it be +a high island, with cliff piled on cliff, and peak on peak, all rich +with mighty forests, like a furred mantle of green velvet, mounting +up and up till it is lost among white clouds above? Or shall it be a +mere low reef, which you do not see till you are close upon it; on +which nothing rises above the water, but here and there a knot of +cocoa-nut palms or a block of stone, or a few bushes, swarming with +innumerable sea-fowl and their eggs? Let it be which you will: both +are strange enough; both beautiful; both will tell us a story. + +The ship will have to lie-to, and anchor if she can; it may be a +mile, it may be only a few yards, from the land. For between it and +the land will be a line of breakers, raging in before the warm trade- +wind. And this, you will be told, marks the edge of the coral reef. + +You will have to go ashore in a boat, over a sea which looks +unfathomable, and which may be a mile or more in depth, and search +for an opening in the reef, through which the boat can pass without +being knocked to pieces. + +You find one: and in a moment, what a change! The deep has suddenly +become shallow; the blue white, from the gleam of the white coral at +the bottom. But the coral is not all white, only indeed a little of +it; for as you look down through the clear water, you find that the +coral is starred with innumerable live flowers, blue, crimson, grey, +every conceivable hue; and that these are the coral polypes, each +with its ring of arms thrust out of its cell, who are building up +their common habitations of lime. If you want to understand, by a +rough but correct description, what a coral polype is: all who have +been to the sea-side know, or at least have heard of, sea-anemones. +Now coral polypes are sea-anemones, which make each a shell of lime, +growing with its growth. As for their shapes, the variety of them, +the beauty of them, no tongue can describe them. If you want to see +them, go to the Coral Rooms of the British or Liverpool Museums, and +judge for yourselves. Only remember that you must re-clothe each of +those exquisite forms with a coating of live jelly of some delicate +hue, and put back into every one of the thousand cells its living +flower; and into the beds, or rather banks, of the salt-water flower +garden, the gaudiest of shell-less sea-anemones, such as we have on +our coasts, rooted in the cracks, and live shells and sea-slugs, as +gaudy as they, crawling about, with fifty other forms of fantastic +and exuberant life. You must not overlook, too, the fish, especially +the parrot-fish, some of them of the gaudiest colours, who spend +their lives in browsing on the live coral, with strong clipping and +grinding teeth, just as a cow browses the grass, keeping the animal +matter, and throwing away the lime in the form of an impalpable white +mud, which fills up the interstices in the coral beds. + +The bottom, just outside the reef, is covered with that mud, mixed +with more lime-mud, which the surge wears off the reef; and if you +have, as you should have, a dredge on board, and try a haul of that +mud as you row home, you may find, but not always, animal forms +rooted in it, which will delight the soul of a scientific man. One, +I hope, would be some sort of Terebratula, or shell akin to it. You +would probably think it a cockle: but you would be wrong. The +animal which dwells in it has about the same relationship to a cockle +as a dog has to a bird. It is a Brachiopod; a family with which the +ancient seas once swarmed, but which is rare now, all over the world, +having been supplanted and driven out of the seas by newer and +stronger forms of shelled animals. The nearest spot at which you are +likely to dredge a live Brachiopod will be in the deep water of Loch +Fyne, in Argyleshire, where two species still linger, fastened, +strangely enough, to the smooth pebbles of a submerged glacier, +formed in the open air during the age of ice, but sunk now to a depth +of eighty fathoms. The first time I saw those shells come up in the +dredge out of the dark and motionless abyss, I could sympathise with +the feelings of mingled delight and awe which, so my companion told +me, the great Professor Owen had in the same spot first beheld the +same lingering remnants of a primaeval world. + +The other might be (but I cannot promise you even a chance of +dredging that, unless you were off the coast of Portugal, or the +windward side of some of the West India Islands) a live Crinoid; an +exquisite starfish, with long and branching arms, but rooted in the +mud by a long stalk, and that stalk throwing out barren side +branches; the whole a living plant of stone. You may see in museums +specimens of this family, now so rare, all but extinct. And yet +fifty or a hundred different forms of the same type swarmed in the +ancient seas: whole masses of limestone are made up of little else +but the fragments of such animals. + +But we have not landed yet on the dry part of the reef. Let us make +for it, taking care meanwhile that we do not get our feet cut by the +coral, or stung as by nettles by the coral insects. We shall see +that the dry land is made up entirely of coral, ground and broken by +the waves, and hurled inland by the storm, sometimes in huge +boulders, mostly as fine mud; and that, under the influence of the +sun and of the rain, which filters through it, charged with lime from +the rotting coral, the whole is setting, as cement sets, into rock. +And what is this? A long bank of stone standing up as a low cliff, +ten or twelve feet above high-water mark. It is full of fragments of +shell, of fragments of coral, of all sorts of animal remains; and the +lower part of it is quite hard rock. Moreover, it is bedded in +regular layers, just such as you see in a quarry. But how did it get +there? It must have been formed at the sea-level, some of it, +indeed, under the sea; for here are great masses of madrepore and +limestone corals imbedded just as they grew. What lifted it up? +Your companions, if you have any who know the island, have no +difficulty in telling you. It was hove up, they say, in the +earthquake in such and such a year; and they will tell you, perhaps, +that if you will go on shore to the main island which rises inside +the reef, you may see dead coral beds just like these lying on the +old rocks, and sloping up along the flanks of the mountains to +several hundred feet above the sea. I have seen such many a time. + +Thus you find the coral being converted gradually into a limestone +rock, either fine and homogeneous, composed of coral grown into pulp, +or filled with corals and shells, or with angular fragments of older +coral rock. Did you never see that last? No? Yes, you have a +hundred times. You have but to look at the marbles commonly used +about these islands, with angular fragments imbedded in the mass, and +here and there a shell, the whole cemented together by water holding +in solution carbonate of lime, and there see the very same phenomenon +perpetuated to this day. + +Thus, I think, we have got first from the known to the unknown; from +a tropic coral island back here to the limestone hills of Great +Britain; and I did not speak at random when I said that I was not +leading you away as far as you fancied by several thousand miles. + +Examine any average limestone quarry from Bristol to Berwick, and you +will see there all that I have been describing; that is, all of it +which is not soft animal matter, certain to decay. You will see the +lime-mud hardened into rock beds; you will see the shells embedded in +it; you will see the corals in every stage of destruction; you will +see whole layers made up of innumerable fragments of Crinoids--no +wonder they are innumerable, for, it has been calculated, there are +in a single animal of some of the species 140,000 joints--140,000 +bits of lime to fall apart when its soft parts decay. But is it not +all there? And why should it not have got there by the same process +by which similar old coral beds get up the mountain sides in the West +Indies and elsewhere; namely, by the upheaving force of earthquakes? +When you see similar effects, you have a right to presume similar +causes. If you see a man fall off a house here, and break his neck; +and some years after, in London or New York, or anywhere else, find +another man lying at the foot of another house, with his neck broken +in the same way, is it not a very fair presumption that he has fallen +off a house likewise? + +You may be wrong. He may have come to his end by a dozen other +means: but you must have proof of that. You will have a full right, +in science and in common sense, to say--That man fell off the house, +till some one proves to you that he did not. + +In fact, there is nothing which you see in the limestones of these +isles--save and except the difference in every shell and coral--which +you would not see in the coral-beds of the West Indies, if such +earthquakes as that famous one at St. Thomas's, in 1866, became +common and periodic, upheaving the land (they needs upheave it a very +little, only two hundred and fifty feet), till St. Thomas's, and all +the Virgin Isles, and the mighty mountain of Porto Rico, which looms +up dim and purple to the west, were all joined into dry land once +more, and the lonely coral-shoal of Anegada were raised, as it would +be raised then, into a limestone table-land, like that of Central +Ireland, of Galway, or of County Clare. + +But you must clearly understand, that however much these coralline +limestones have been upheaved since they were formed, yet the sea- +bottom, while they were being formed, was sinking and not rising. +This is a fact which was first pointed out by Mr. Darwin, from the +observations which he made in the world-famous Voyage of the Beagle; +and the observations of subsequent great naturalists have all gone to +corroborate his theory. + +It was supposed at first, you must understand, that when a coral +island rose steeply to the surface of the sea out of blue water, +perhaps a thousand fathoms or more, that fact was plain proof that +the little coral polypes had begun at the bottom of the sea, and, in +the course of ages, built up the whole island an enormous depth. + +But it soon came out that that theory was not correct; for the coral +polypes cannot live and build save in shallow water--say in thirty to +forty fathoms. Indeed, some of the strongest and largest species +work best at the very surface, and in the cut of the fiercest surf. +And so arose a puzzle as to how coral rock is often found of vast +thickness, which Mr. Darwin explained. His theory was, and there is +no doubt now that it is correct, that in these cases the sea-bottom +is sinking; that as it sinks, carrying the coral beds down with it, +the coral dies, and a fresh live crop of polypes builds on the top of +the houses of their dead ancestors: so that, as the depression goes +on, generation after generation builds upwards, the living on the +dead, keeping the upper surface of the reef at the same level, while +its base is sinking downward into the abyss. + +Applying this theory to the coral reef of the Pacific Ocean, the +following interesting facts were made out: + +That where you find an Island rising out of deep water, with a ring +of coral round it, a little way from the shore--or, as in Eastern +Australia, a coast with a fringing reef (the Flinders reef of +Australia is eleven thousand miles long)--that is a pretty sure sign +that that shore, or mountain, is sinking slowly beneath the sea. +That where you find, as you often do in the Pacific, a mere atoll, or +circular reef of coral, with a shallow pond of smooth water in the +centre, and deep sea round, that is a pretty sure sign that the +mountain-top has sunk completely into the sea, and that the corals +are going on building where its peak once was. + +And more. On working out the geography of the South Sea Islands by +the light of this theory of Mr. Darwin's, the following extraordinary +fact has been discovered: + +That over a great part of the Pacific Ocean sinking is going on, and +has been going on for ages; and that the greater number of the +beautiful and precious South Sea Islands are only the remnants of a +vast continent or archipelago, which once stretched for thousands of +miles between Australia and South America. + +Now, applying the same theory to limestone beds, which are, as you +know, only fossil coral reefs, we have a right to say, when we see in +England, Scotland, Ireland, limestones several thousand feet thick, +that while they were being laid down as coral reef, the sea-bottom, +and probably the neighbouring land, must have been sinking to the +amount of their thickness--to several thousand feet--before that +later sinking which enabled several hundred feet of millstone grit to +be laid down on the top of the limestone. + +This millstone grit is a new and a very remarkable element in our +strange story. From Derby to Northumberland it forms vast and lofty +moors, capping, as at Whernside and Penygent, the highest limestone +hills with its hard, rough, barren, and unfossiliferous strata. +Wherever it is found, it lies on the top of the "mountain," or +carboniferous limestone. Almost everywhere, where coal is found in +England, it lies on the millstone grit. I speak roughly, for fear of +confusing my readers with details. The three deposits pass more or +less, in many places, into each other: but always in the order of +mountain limestone below, millstone grit on it, and coal on that +again. + +Now what does its presence prove? What but this? That after the +great coral reefs which spread over Somersetshire and South Wales, +around the present estuary of the Severn,--and those, once perhaps +joined to them, which spread from Derby to Berwick, with a western +branch through North-east Wales,--were laid down--after all this, I +say, some change took place in the sea-bottom, and brought down on +the reefs of coral sheets of sand, which killed the corals and buried +them in grit. Does any reader wish for proof of this? Let him +examine the "cherty," or flinty, beds which so often appear where the +bottom of the millstone grit is passing into the top of the mountain +limestone--the beds, to give an instance, which are now quarried on +the top of the Halkin Mountain in Flintshire, for chert, which is +sent to Staffordshire to be ground down for the manufacture of china. +He will find layers in those beds, of several feet in thickness, as +hard as flint, but as porous as sponge. On examining their cavities +he will find them to be simply hollow casts of innumerable joints of +Crinoids, so exquisitely preserved, even to their most delicate +markings, that it is plain they were never washed about upon a beach, +but have grown where, or nearly where, they lie. What then, has +happened to them? They have been killed by the sand. The soft parts +of the animals have decayed, letting the 140,000 joints (more or +less) belonging to each animal fall into a heap, and be imbedded in +the growing sand-rock; and then, it may be long years after, water +filtering through the porous sand has removed the lime of which the +joints were made, and left their perfect casts behind. + +So much for the millstone grits. How long the deposition of sand +went on, how long after it that second deposition of sands took +place, which goes by the name of the "gannister," or lower coal- +measures, we cannot tell. But it is clear, at least, that parts of +that ancient sea were filling up and becoming dry land. For coal, or +fossilised vegetable matter, becomes more and more common as we +ascend in the series of beds; till at last, in the upper coal- +measures, the enormous wealth of vegetation which grew, much of it, +where it is now found, prove the existence of some such sheets of +fertile and forest-clad lowland as I described in my last paper. + +Thousands of feet of rich coral reef; thousands of feet of barren +sands; then thousands of feet of rich alluvial forest--and all these +sliding into each other, if not in one place, then in another, +without violent break or change; this is the story which the lime in +the mortar and the coal on the fire, between the two, reveal. + + + +VI. THE SLATES ON THE ROOF + + + +The slates on the roof should be, when rightly understood, a pleasant +subject for contemplation to the dweller in a town. I do not ask him +to imitate the boy who, cliff-bred from his youth, used to spend +stolen hours on the house-top, with his back against a chimney-stalk, +transfiguring in his imagination the roof-slopes into mountain-sides, +the slates into sheets of rock, the cats into lions, and the sparrows +into eagles. I only wish that he should--at least after reading this +paper--let the slates on the roof carry him back in fancy to the +mountains whence they came; perhaps to pleasant trips to the lakes +and hills of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and North Wales; and to +recognise--as he will do if he have intellect as well as fancy--how +beautiful and how curious an object is a common slate. + +Beautiful, not only for the compactness and delicacy of its texture, +and for the regularity and smoothness of its surface, but still more +for its colour. Whether merely warm grey, as when dry, or bright +purple, as when wet, the colour of the English slate well justifies +Mr. Ruskin's saying, that wherever there is a brick wall and a slate +roof there need be no want of rich colour in an English landscape. +But most beautiful is the hue of slate, when, shining wet in the +sunshine after a summer shower, its blue is brought out in rich +contrast by golden spots of circular lichen, whose spores, I presume, +have travelled with it off its native mountains. Then, indeed, it +reminds the voyager of a sight which it almost rivals in brilliancy-- +of the sapphire of the deep ocean, brought out into blazing intensity +by the contrast of the golden patches of floating gulf-weed beneath +the tropic sun. + +Beautiful, I say, is the slate; and curious likewise, nay, venerable; +a most ancient and elaborate work of God, which has lasted long +enough, and endured enough likewise, to bring out in it whatsoever +latent capabilities of strength and usefulness might lie hid in it; +which has literally been--as far as such words can apply to a thing +inanimate-- + + +Heated hot with burning fears, +And bathed in baths of hissing tears, +And battered by the strokes of doom +To shape and use. + + +And yet it was at first naught but an ugly lump of soft and shapeless +ooze. + +Therefore, the slates to me are as a parable, on which I will not +enlarge, but will leave each reader to interpret it for himself. I +shall confine myself now to proofs that slate is hardened mud, and to +hints as to how it assumed its present form. + +That slate may have been once mud, is made probable by the simple +fact that it can be turned into mud again. If you grind tip slate, +and then analyse it, you will find its mineral constituents to be +exactly those of a fine, rich, and tenacious clay. The slate +districts (at least in Snowdon) carry such a rich clay on them, +wherever it is not masked by the ruins of other rocks. At +Ilfracombe, in North Devon, the passage from slate below to clay +above, may be clearly seen. Wherever the top of the slate beds, and +the soil upon it, is laid bare, the black layers of slate may be seen +gradually melting--if I may use the word--under the influence of rain +and frost, into a rich tenacious clay, which is now not black, like +its parent slate, but red, from the oxidation of the iron which it +contains. + +But, granting this, how did the first change take place? + +It must be allowed, at starting, that time enough has elapsed, and +events enough have happened, since our supposed mud began first to +become slate, to allow of many and strange transformations. For +these slates are found in the oldest beds of rocks, save one series, +in the known world; and it is notorious that the older and lower the +beds in which the slates are found, the better, that is, the more +perfectly elaborate, is the slate. The best slates of Snowdon--I +must confine myself to the district which I know personally--are +found in the so-called "Cambrian" beds. Below these beds but one +series of beds is as yet known in the world, called the "Laurentian." +They occur, to a thickness of some eighty thousand feet, in Labrador, +Canada, and the Adirondack mountains of New York: but their +representatives in Europe are, as far as is known only to be found in +the north-west highlands of Scotland, and in the island of Lewis, +which consists entirely of them. And it is to be remembered, as a +proof of their inconceivable antiquity, that they have been upheaved +and shifted long before the Cambrian rocks were laid down +"unconformably" on their worn and broken edges. + +Above the "Cambrian" slates--whether the lower and older ones of +Penrhyn and Llanberris, which are the same--one slate mountain being +worked at both sides in two opposite valleys--or the upper and newer +slates of Tremadoc, lie other and newer slate-bearing beds of +inferior quality, and belonging to a yet newer world, the "Silurian." +To them belong the Llandeilo flags and slates of Wales, and the +Skiddaw slates of Cumberland, amid beds abounding in extinct fossil +forms. Fossil shells are found, it is true, in the upper Cambrian +beds. In the lower they have all but disappeared. Whether their +traces have been obliterated by heat and pressure, and chemical +action, during long ages; or whether, in these lower beds, we are +actually reaching that "Primordial Zone" conceived of by M. Barrande, +namely, rocks which existed before living things had begun to people +this planet, is a question not yet answered. I believe the former +theory to be the true one. That there was life, in the sea at least, +even before the oldest Cambrian rocks were laid down, is proved by +the discovery of the now famous fossil, the Eozoon, in the Laurentian +limestones, which seems to have grown layer after layer, and to have +formed reefs of limestone as do the living coral-building polypes. +We know no more as yet. But all that we do know points downwards, +downwards still, warning us that we must dig deeper than we have dug +as yet, before we reach the graves of the first living things. + +Let this suffice at present for the Cambrian and Laurentian rocks. + +The Silurian rocks, lower and upper, which in these islands have +their chief development in Wales, and which are nearly thirty-eight +thousand feet thick; and the Devonian or Old Red sandstone beds, +which in the Fans of Brecon and Carmarthenshire attain a thickness of +ten thousand feet, must be passed through in an upward direction +before we reach the bottom of that Carboniferous Limestone of which I +spoke in my last paper. We thus find on the Cambrian rocks forty- +five thousand feet at least of newer rocks, in several cases lying +unconformably on each other, showing thereby that the lower beds had +been upheaved, and their edges worn off on a sea-shore, ere the upper +were laid down on them; and throughout this vast thickness of rocks, +the remains of hundreds of forms of animals, corals, shells, fish, +older forms dying out in the newer rocks, and new ones taking their +places in a steady succession of ever-varying forms, till those in +the upper beds have become unlike those in the lower, and all are +from the beginning more or less unlike any existing now on earth. +Whole families, indeed, disappear entirely, like the Trilobites, +which seem to have swarmed in the Silurian seas, holding the same +place there as crabs and shrimps do in our modern seas. They vanish +after the period of the coal, and their place is taken by an allied +family of Crustaceans, of which only one form (as far as I am aware) +lingers now on earth, namely, the "King Crab," or Limulus, of the +Indian Seas, a well-known animal, of which specimens may sometimes be +seen alive in English aquaria. So perished in the lapse of those +same ages, the armour-plated or "Ganoid" fish which Hugh Miller made +so justly famous--and which made him so justly famous in return-- +appearing first in the upper Silurian beds, and abounding in vast +variety of strange forms in the old Red Sandstone, but gradually +disappearing from the waters of the world, till their only +representatives, as far as known, are the Lepidostei, or "Bony +Pikes," of North America; the Polypteri of the Nile and Senegal; the +Lepidosirens of the African lakes and Western rivers; the Ceratodus +or Barramundi of Queensland (the two latter of which approach +Amphibians), and one or two more fantastic forms, either rudimentary +or degraded, which have lasted on here and there in isolated stations +through long ages, comparatively unchanged while all the world is +changed around them, and their own kindred, buried like the fossil +Ceratodus of the Trias beneath thousands of feet of ancient rock, +among creatures the likes whereof are not to be found now on earth. +And these are but two examples out of hundreds of the vast changes +which have taken place in the animal life of the globe, between the +laying down of the Cambrian slates and the present time. + +Surely--and it is to this conclusion I have been tending throughout a +seemingly wandering paragraph--surely there has been time enough +during all those ages for clay to change into slate. + +And how were they changed? + +I think I cannot teach my readers this more simply than by asking +them first to buy Sheet No. LXXVIII. S.E. (Bangor) of the Snowdon +district of the Government Geological Survey, which may be ordered at +any good stationer's, price 3s.; and study it with me. He will see +down the right-hand margin interpretations of the different colours +which mark the different beds, beginning with the youngest (alluvium) +atop, and going down through Carboniferous Limestone and Sandstone, +Upper Silurian, Lower Silurian, Cambrian, and below them certain +rocks marked of different shades of red, which signify rocks either +altered by heat, or poured out of old volcanic vents. He will next +see that the map is covered with a labyrinth of red patches and +curved lines, signifying the outcrop or appearance at the surface of +these volcanic beds. They lie at every conceivable slope; and the +hills and valleys have been scooped out by rain and ice into every +conceivable slope likewise. Wherefore we see, here a broad patch of +red, where the back of a sheet of Lava, Porphyry, Greenstone, or what +not is exposed; there a narrow line curving often with the curve of +the hill-side, where only the edge of a similar sheet is exposed; and +every possible variety of shape and attitude between these two. He +will see also large spaces covered with little coloured dots, which +signify (as he will find at the margin) beds of volcanic ash. If he +look below the little coloured squares on the margin, he will see +figures marking the strike, or direction of the inclination of the +beds--inclined, vertical, horizontal, contorted; that the white lines +in the map signify faults, i.e. shifts in the strata; the gold lines, +lodes of metal--the latter of which I should advise him strongly, in +this district at least, not to meddle with: but to button up his +pockets, and to put into the fire, in wholesome fear of his own +weakness and ignorance, any puffs of mining companies which may be +sent him--as one or two have probably been sent him already. + +Furnished with which keys to the map, let him begin to con it over, +sure that there is if not an order, still a grand meaning in all its +seeming confusion; and let him, if he be a courteous and grateful +person, return due thanks to Professor Ramsay for having found it all +out; not without wondering, as I have often wondered, how even +Professor Ramsay's acuteness and industry could find it all out. + +When my reader has studied awhile the confusion--for it is a true +confusion--of the different beds, he will ask, or at least have a +right to ask, what known process of nature can have produced it? How +have these various volcanic rocks, which he sees marked as Felspathic +Traps, Quartz Porphyries, Greenstones, and so forth, got intermingled +with beds which he is told to believe are volcanic ashes, and those +again with fossil-bearing Silurian beds and Cambrian slates, which he +is told to believe were deposited under water? And his puzzle will +not be lessened when he is told that, in some cases, as in that of +the summit of Snowdon, these very volcanic ashes contain fossil +shells. + +The best answer I can give is to ask him to use his imagination, or +his common sense; and to picture to himself what must go on in the +case of a submarine eruption, such as broke out off the coast of +Iceland in 1783 and 1830, off the Azores in 1811, and in our day in +more than one spot in the Pacific Ocean. + +A main bore or vent--or more than one--opens itself between the +bottom of the sea and the nether fires. From each rushes an enormous +jet of high-pressure steam and other gases, which boils up through +the sea, and forms a cloud above; that cloud descends again in heavy +rain, and gives out often true lightning from its under side. + +But it does more. It acts as a true steam-gun, hurling into the air +fragments of cold rock rasped off from the sides of the bore, and +fragments also of melted lava, and clouds of dust, which fall again +into the sea, and form there beds either of fine mud or of breccia-- +that is, fragments of stone embedded in paste. This, the reader will +understand, is no fancy sketch, as far as I am concerned. I have +steamed into craters sawn through by the sea, and showing sections of +beds of ash dipping outwards and under the sea, and in them boulders +and pebbles of every size, which had been hurled out of the crater; +and in them also veins of hardened lava, which had burrowed out +through the soft ashes of the cone. Of those lava veins I will speak +presently. What I want the reader to think of now is the immense +quantity of ash which the steam-mitrailleuse hurls to so vast a +height into the air, that it is often drifted many miles down to +leeward. To give two instances: The jet of steam from Vesuvius, in +the eruption of 1822, rose more than four miles into the air; the jet +from the Souffriere of St. Vincent in the West Indies, in 1812, +probably rose higher; certainly it met the N.E. trade-wind, for it +poured down a layer of ashes, several inches thick, not only on St. +Vincent itself, but on Barbadoes, eighty miles to windward, and +therefore on all the sea between. Now let us consider what that +represents--a layer of fine mud, laid down at the bottom of the +ocean, several inches thick, eighty miles at least long, and twenty +miles perhaps broad, by a single eruption. Suppose that hardened in +long ages (as it would be under pressure) into a bed of fine grained +Felstone, or volcanic ash; and we can understand how the ash-beds of +Snowdonia--which may be traced some of them for many square miles-- +were laid down at the bottom of an ancient sea. + +But now about the lavas or true volcanic rocks, which are painted (as +is usual in geological maps) red. Let us go down to the bottom of +the sea, and build up our volcano towards the surface. + +First, as I said, the subterranean steam would blast a bore. The +dust and stones, rasped and blasted out of that hole would be spread +about the sea-bottom as an ash-bed sloping away round the hole; then +the molten lava would rise in the bore, and flow out over the ashes +and the sea-bottom--perhaps in one direction, perhaps all round. +Then, usually, the volcano, having vented itself, would be quieter +for a time, till the heat accumulated below, and more ash was blasted +out, making a second ash-bed; and then would follow a second lava +flow. Thus are produced the alternate beds of lava and ash which are +so common. + +Now suppose that at this point the volcano was exhausted, and lay +quiet for a few hundred years, or more. If there was any land near, +from which mud and sand were washed down, we might have layers on +layers of sediment deposited, with live shells, etc., living in them, +which would be converted into fossils when they died; and so we +should have fossiliferous beds over the ashes and lavas. Indeed, +shells might live and thrive in the ash-mud itself, when it cooled, +and the sea grew quiet, as they have lived and thriven in Snowdonia. + +Now suppose that after these sedimentary beds are laid down by water, +the volcano breaks out again--what would happen? + +Many things: specially this, which has often happened already. + +The lava, kept down by the weight of these new rocks, searches for +the point of least resistance, and finds it in a more horizontal +direction. It burrows out through the softer ash-beds, and between +the sedimentary beds, spreading itself along horizontally. This +process accounts for the very puzzling, though very common case in +Snowdon and elsewhere, in which we find lavas interstratified with +rocks which are plainly older than those lavas. Perhaps when that is +done the volcano has got rid of all its lava, and is quiet. But if +not, sooner or later, it bores up through the new sedimentary rocks, +faulting them by earthquake shocks till it gets free vent, and begins +its layers of alternate ash and lava once more. + +And consider this fact also: If near the first (as often happens) +there is another volcano, the lava from one may run over the lava +from the other, and we may have two lavas of different materials +overlying each other, which have come from different directions. The +ashes blown out of the two craters may mingle also, and so, in the +course of ages, the result may be such a confusion of ashes, lavas, +and sedimentary rocks as we find throughout most mountain ranges in +Snowdon, in the Lake mountains, in the Auvergne in France, in Sicily +round Etna, in Italy round Vesuvius, and in so many West Indian +Islands; the last confusion of which is very likely to be this: + +That when the volcano has succeeded--as it did in the case of Sabrina +Island off the Azores in 1811, and as it did, perhaps often, in +Snowdonia--in piling up an ash cone some hundred feet out of the sea; +that--as has happened to Sabrina Island--the cone is sunk again by +earthquakes, and gnawn down at the same time by the sea-waves, till +nothing is left but a shoal under water. But where have all its vast +heaps of ashes gone? To be spread about over the bottom of the sea, +to mingle with the mud already there, and so make beds of which, like +many in Snowdon, we cannot say whether they are of volcanic or of +marine origin, because they are of both. + +But what has all this to do with the slates? + +I shall not be surprised if my readers ask that question two or three +times during this paper. But they must be kind enough to let me tell +my story my own way. The slates were not made in a day, and I fear +they cannot be explained in an hour: unless we begin carefully at +the beginning in order to end at the end. Let me first make my +readers clearly understand that all our slate-bearing mountains, and +most also of the non-slate-bearing ones likewise, are formed after +the fashion which I have described, namely, beneath the sea. I do +not say that there may not have been, again, and again, ash-cones +rising above the surface of the waves. But if so, they were washed +away, again and again, ages before the land assumed anything of its +present shape; ages before the beds were twisted and upheaved as they +are now. + +And therefore I beg my readers to put out of their minds once and for +all the fancy that in any known part of these islands craters are to +be still seen, such as exist in Etna, or Vesuvius, or other volcanoes +now at work in the open air. + +It is necessary to insist on this, because many people hearing that +certain mountains are volcanic, conclude--and very naturally and +harmlessly--that the circular lakes about their tops are true +craters. I have been told, for instance, that that wonderful little +blue Glas Llyn, under the highest cliff of Snowdon, is the old crater +of the mountain; and I have heard people insist that a similar lake, +of almost equal grandeur, in the south side of Cader Idris, is a +crater likewise. + +But the fact is not so. Any one acquainted with recent craters would +see at once that Glas Llyn is not an ancient one; and I am not +surprised to find the Government geologists declaring that the Llyn +on Cader Idris is not one either. The fact is, that the crater, or +rather the place where the crater has been, in ancient volcanoes of +this kind, is probably now covered by one of the innumerable bosses +of lava. + +For, as an eruption ceases, the melted lava cools in the vents, and +hardens; usually into lava infinitely harder than the ash-cone round +it; and this, when the ash-cone is washed off, remains as the highest +part of the hill, as in the Mont Dore and the Cantal in France, and +in several extinct volcanoes in the Antilles. Of course the lava +must have been poured out, and the ashes blown out from some vents or +other, connected with the nether world of fire; probably from many +successive vents. For in volcanoes, when one vent is choked, another +is wont to open at some fresh point of least resistance among the +overlying rocks. But where are these vents? Buried deep under +successive eruptions, shifted probably from their places by +successive upheavings and dislocations; and if we wanted to find them +we should have to quarry the mountain range all over, a mile deep, +before we hit upon here and there a tap-root of ancient lava, +connecting the upper and the nether worlds. There are such tap- +roots, probably, under each of our British mountain ranges. But +Snowdon, certainly, does not owe its shape to the fact of one of +these old fire vents being under it. It owes its shape simply to the +accident of some of the beds toward the summit being especially hard, +and thus able to stand the wear and tear of sea-wave, ice, and rain. +Its lakes have been formed quite regardless of the lie of the rocks, +though not regardless of their relative hardness. But what forces +scooped them out--whether they were originally holes left in the +ground by earthquakes, and deepened since by rain and rivers, or +whether they were scooped out by ice, or by any other means, is a +question on which the best geologists are yet undecided--decided only +on this--that craters they are not. + +As for the enormous changes which have taken place in the outline of +the whole of the mountains, since first their strata were laid down +at the bottom of the sea: I shall give facts enough, before this +paper is done, to enable readers to judge of them for themselves. + +The reader will now ask, naturally enough, how such a heap of beds as +I have described can take the shape of mountains like Snowdon. + +Look at any sea cliff in which the strata are twisted and set on +slope. There are hundreds of such in these isles. The beds must +have been at one time straight and horizontal. But it is equally +clear that they have been folded by being squeezed laterally. At +least, that is the simplest explanation, as may be proved by +experiment. Take a number of pieces of cloth, or any such stuff; lay +them on each other and then squeeze them together at each end. They +will arrange themselves in folds, just as the beds of the cliff have +done. And if, instead of cloth, you take some more brittle matter, +you will find that, as you squeeze on, these folds will tend to snap +at the points of greatest tension or stretching, which will be of +course at the anticlinal and synclinal lines--in plain English, the +tops and bottoms of the folds. Thus cracks will be formed; and if +the pressure goes on, the ends of the layers will shift against each +other in the line of those cracks, forming faults like those so +common in rocks. + +But again, suppose that instead of squeezing these broken and folded +lines together any more, you took off the pressure right and left, +and pressed them upwards from below, by a mimic earthquake. They +would rise; and as they rose leave open space between them. Now if +you could contrive to squeeze into them from below a paste, which +would harden in the cracks and between the layers, and so keep them +permanently apart, you would make them into a fair likeness of an +average mountain range--a mess--if I may make use of a plain old +word--of rocks which have, by alternate contraction and expansion, +helped in the latter case by the injection of molten lava, been +thrust about as they are in most mountain ranges. + +That such a contraction and expansion goes on in the crust of the +earth is evident; for here are the palpable effects of it. And the +simplest general cause which I can give for it is this: That things +expand as they are heated, and contract as they are cooled. + +Now I am not learned enough--and were I, I have not time--to enter +into the various theories which philosophers have put forward, to +account for these grand phenomena. + +The most remarkable, perhaps, and the most probable, is the theory of +M. Elie de Beaumont, which is, in a few words, this: + +That this earth, like all the planets, must have been once in a state +of intense heat throughout, as its mass inside is probably now. + +That it must be cooling, and giving off its heat into space. + +That, therefore, as it cools, its crust must contract. + +That, therefore, in contracting, wrinkles (for the loftiest mountain +chains are nothing but tiny wrinkles, compared with the whole mass of +the earth), wrinkles, I say, must form on its surface from time to +time. And that the mountain chains are these wrinkles. + +Be that as it may, we may safely say this. That wherever the +internal heat of the earth tends (as in the case of volcanoes) +towards a particular spot, that spot must expand, and swell up, +bulging the rocks out, and probably cracking them, and inserting +melting lava into those cracks from below. On the other hand, if the +internal heat leaves that spot again, and it cools, then it must +contract more or less, in falling inward toward the centre of the +earth; and so the beds must be crumpled, and crushed, and shifted +against each other still more, as those of our mountains have been. + +But here may arise, in some of my readers' minds, a reasonable +question--If these upheaved beds were once horizontal, should we not +be likely to find them, in some places, horizontal still? + +A reasonable question, and one which admits of a full answer. + +They know, of course, that there has been a gradual, but steady, +change in the animals of this planet; and that the relative age of +beds can, on the strength of that known change, be determined +generally by the fossils, usually shells, peculiar to them: so that +if we find the same fashion of shells, and still more the same +species of shells, in two beds in different quarters of the world, +then we have a right to say--These beds were laid down at least about +the same time. That is a general rule among all geologists, and not +to be gainsaid. + +Now I think I may say, that, granting that we can recognise a bed by +its fossils, there are few or no beds which are found in one place +upheaved, broken, and altered by heat, which are not found in some +other place still horizontal, unbroken, unaltered, and more or less +as they were at first. + +From the most recent beds; from the upheaved coral-rocks of the West +Indies, and the upheaved and faulted boulder clay and chalk of the +Isle of Moen in Denmark--downwards through all the strata, down to +that very ancient one in which the best slates are found, this rule, +I believe, stands true. + +It stands true, certainly, of the ancient Silurian rocks of Wales, +Cumberland, Ireland, and Scotland. + +For, throughout great tracts of Russia, and in parts of Norway and +Sweden, Sir Roderick Murchison discovered our own Silurian beds, +recognisable from their peculiar fossils. But in what state? Not +contracted, upheaved, and hardened to slates and grits, as they are +in Wales and elsewhere: but horizontal, unbroken, and still soft, +because undisturbed by volcanic rooks and earthquakes. At the bottom +of them all, near Petersburg, Sir Roderick found a shale of dried mud +(to quote his own words), "so soft and incoherent that it is even +used by sculptors for modelling, although it underlies the great mass +of fossil-bearing Silurian rocks, and is, therefore, of the same age +as the lower crystalline hard slates of North Wales. So entirely +have most of these eldest rocks in Russia been exempted from the +influence of change, throughout those enormous periods which have +passed away since their accumulation." + +Among the many discoveries which science owes to that illustrious +veteran, I know none more valuable for its bearing on the whole +question of the making of the earth-crust, than this one magnificent +fact. + +But what a contrast between these Scandinavian and Russian rocks and +those of Britain! Never exceeding, in Scandinavia, a thousand feet +in thickness, and lying usually horizontal, as they were first laid +down, they are swelled in Britain to a thickness of thirty thousand +feet, by intruded lavas and ashes; snapt, turned, set on end at every +conceivable angle; shifted against each other to such an extent, +that, to give a single instance, in the Vale of Gwynnant, under +Snowdon, an immense wedge of porphyry has been thrust up, in what is +now the bottom of the valley, between rocks far newer than it, on one +side to a height of eight hundred, on the other to a height of +eighteen hundred feet--half the present height of Snowdon. Nay, the +very slate beds of Snowdonia have not forced their way up from under +the mountain--without long and fearful struggles. They are set in +places upright on end, then horizontal again, then sunk in an +opposite direction, then curled like sea-waves, then set nearly +upright once more, and faulted through and through, six times, I +believe, in the distance of a mile or two; they carry here and there +on their backs patches of newer beds, the rest of which has long +vanished; and in their rise they have hurled back to the eastward, +and set upright, what is now the whole western flank of Snowdon, a +mass of rock which was then several times as thick as it is now. + +The force which thus tortured them was probably exerted by the great +mass of volcanic Quartz-porphyry, which rises from under them to the +north-west, crossing the end of the lower lake of the Llanberris; and +indeed the shifts and convulsions which have taken place between them +and the Menai Straits are so vast that they can only be estimated by +looking at them on the section which may be found at the end of +Professor Ramsay's "Geological Survey of North Wales." But anyone +who will study that section, and use (as with the map) a little +imagination and common sense, will see that between the heat of that +Porphyry, which must have been poured out as a fluid mass as hot, +probably, as melted iron, and the pressure of it below, and of the +Silurian beds above, the Cambrian mud-strata of Llanberris and +Penrhyn quarries must have suffered enough to change them into +something very different from mud, and, therefore, probably, into +what they are now--namely, slate. + +And now, at last, we have got to the slates on the roof, and may +disport ourselves over them--like the cats. + +Look at any piece of slate. All know that slate splits or cleaves +freely, in one direction only, into flat layers. Now any one would +suppose at first sight, and fairly enough, that the flat surface--the +"plane of cleavage"--was also the plane of bedding. In simpler +English we should say--The mud which has hardened into the slate was +laid down horizontally; and therefore each slate is one of the little +horizontal beds of it, perhaps just what was laid down in a single +tide. We should have a right to do so, because that would be true of +most sedimentary rocks. But it would not be true of slate. The +plane of bedding in slate has nothing to do with the plane of +cleavage. Or, more plainly, the mud of which the slate is made may +have been deposited at the sea-bottom at any angle to the plane of +cleavage. We may sometimes see the lines of the true bedding--the +lines which were actually horizontal when the mud was laid down--in +bits of slate, and find them sometimes perpendicular to, sometimes +inclined to, and sometimes again coinciding with the plane of +cleavage, which they have evidently acquired long after. + +Nay, more. These parallel planes of cleavage, at each of which the +slate splits freely, will run through a whole mountain at the same +angle, though the beds through which they run may be tilted at +different angles, and twisted into curves. + +Now what has made this change in the rook? We do not exactly know. +One thing is clear, that the particles of the now solid rock have +actually moved on themselves. And this is proved by a very curious +fact--which the reader, if he geologises about slate quarries much, +may see with his own eyes. The fossils in the slate are often +distorted into quaint shapes, pulled out long if they lie along the +plane of cleavage, or squeezed together, or doubled down on both +sides, if they lie across the plane. So that some force has been at +work which could actually change the shape of hard shells, very +slowly, no doubt, else it would have snapped and crumbled them. + +If I am asked what that force was, I do not know. I should advise +young geologists to read what Sir Henry de la Beche has said on it in +his admirable "Geological Observer," pp. 706-725. He will find +there, too, some remarks on that equally mysterious phenomena of +jointing, which you may see in almost all the older rocks; it is +common in limestones. All we can say is, that some force has gone +on, or may be even now going on, in the more ancient rocks, which is +similar to that which produces single crystals; and similar, too, to +that which produced the jointed crystals of basalt, i.e. lava, at the +Giant's Causeway, in Ireland, and Staffa, in the Hebrides. Two +philosophers--Mr. Robert Were Fox and Mr. Robert Hunt--are of opinion +that the force which has determined the cleavage of slates may be +that of the electric currents, which (as is well known) run through +the crust of the earth. Mr. Sharpe, I believe, attributes the +cleavage to the mere mechanical pressure of enormous weights of rock, +especially where crushed by earthquakes. Professor Rogers, again, +points out that as these slates may have been highly heated, thermal +electricity (i.e. electricity brought out by heat) may have acted on +them. + +One thing at least is clear. That the best slates are found among +ancient lavas, and also in rocks which are faulted and tilted +enormously, all which could not have happened without a +proportionately enormous pressure, and therefore heat; and next, that +the best slates are invariably found in the oldest beds--that is, in +the beds which have had most time to endure the changes, whether +mechanical or chemical, which have made the earth's surface what we +see it now. + +Another startling fact the section of Snowdonia, and I believe of +most mountain chains in these islands, would prove--namely, that the +contour of the earth's surface, as we see it now, depends very +little, certainly in mountains composed of these elder rocks upon the +lie of the strata, or beds, but has been carved out by great forces, +long after those beds were not only laid down and hardened, but +faulted and tilted on end. Snowdon itself is so remarkable an +instance of this fact that, as it is a mountain which every one in +these happy days of excursion-trains and steamers either has seen or +can see, I must say a few more words about it. + +Any one who saw that noble peak leaping high into the air, dominating +all the country round, at least upon three sides, and was told that +its summit consisted of beds much newer, not much older, than the +slate-beds fifteen hundred feet down on its north-western flank--any +one, I say, would have the right at first sight, on hearing of +earthquake faults and upheavals, to say--The peak of Snowdon has been +upheaved to its present height above and out of the lower lands +around. But when he came to examine sections, he would find his +reasonable guess utterly wrong. Snowdon is no swelling up of the +earth's crust. The beds do not, as they would in that case, slope up +to it. They slope up from it, to the north-west in one direction, +and the south-south-west in the other; and Snowdon is a mere +insignificant boss, left hanging on one slope of what was once an +enormous trough, or valley, of strata far older than itself. By +restoring these strata, in the direction of the angles, in which they +crop out, and vanish at the surface, it is found that to the north- +west--the direction of the Menai Straits--they must once have risen +to a height of at least six or seven thousand feet; and more, by +restoring them, specially the ash-bed of Snowdon, towards the south- +east--which can be done by the guidance of certain patches of it left +on other hills--it is found that south of Ffestiniog, where the +Cambrian rocks rise again to the surface, the south side of the +trough must have sloped upwards to a height of from fifteen to twenty +thousand feet, whether at the bottom of the sea, or in the upper air, +we cannot tell. But the fact is certain, that off the surface of +Wales, south of Ffestiniog a mass of solid rock as high as the Andes +has been worn down and carried bodily away; and that a few miles +south again, the peak of Arran Mowddy, which is now not two thousand +feet high, was once--either under the sea or above it--nearer ten +thousand feet. + +If I am asked whither is all that enormous mass of rock--millions of +tons--gone? Where is it now? I know not. But if I dared to hazard +a guess, I should say it went to make the New Red sandstones of +England. + +The New Red sandstones must have come from somewhere. The most +likely region for them to have come from is from North Wales, where, +as we know, vast masses of gritty rock have been ground off, such as +would make fine sandstones if they had the chance. So that many a +grain of sand in Chester walls was probably once blasted out of the +bowels of the earth into the old Silurian sea, and after a few +hundreds of thousands of years' repose in a Snowdonian ash-bed, was +sent eastward to build the good old city and many a good town more. + +And the red marl--the great deposit of red marl which covers a wide +region of England--why should not it have come from the same quarter? +Why should it not be simply the remains of the Snowdon Slate? Mud +the slate was, and into mud it has returned. Why not? Some of the +richest red marl land I know, is, as I have said, actually being made +now, out of the black slates of Ilfracombe, wherever they are +weathered by rain and air. The chemical composition is the same. +The difference in colour between black slate and red marl is caused +simply by the oxidation of the iron in the slate. + +And if my readers want a probable cause why the sandstones lie +undermost, and the red marl uppermost--can they not find one for +themselves? I do not say that it is the cause, but it is at least a +causa vera, one which would fully explain the fact, though it may be +explicable in other ways. Think, then, or shall I think for my +readers? + +Then do they not see that when the Welsh mountains were ground down, +the Silurian strata, being uppermost, would be ground down first, and +would go to make the lower strata of the great New Red Sandstone +Lowland; and that being sandy, they would make the sandstones? But +wherever they were ground through, the Lower Cambrian slates would be +laid bare; and their remains, being washed away by the sea the last, +would be washed on to the top of the remains of the Silurians; and so +(as in most cases) the remains of the older rock, when redeposited by +water, would lie on the remains of the younger rock. And do they not +see that (if what I just said is true) these slates would grind up +into red marl, such as is seen over the west and south of Cheshire +and Staffordshire and far away into Nottinghamshire? The red marl +must almost certainly have been black slate somewhere, somewhen. Why +should it not have been such in Snowdon? And why should not the +slates in the roof be the remnants of the very beds which are now the +marl in the fields? + +And thus I end my story of the slates in the roof, and these papers +on Town Geology. I do so, well knowing how imperfect they are: +though not, I believe, inaccurate. They are, after all, merely +suggestive of the great amount that there is to be learnt about the +face of the earth and how it got made, even by the townsman, who can +escape into the country and exchange the world of man for the world +of God, only, perhaps, on Sundays--if, alas! even then--or only once +a year by a trip in a steamer or an excursion train. Little, indeed, +can he learn of the planet on which he lives. Little in that +direction is given to him, and of him little shall be required. But +to him, for that very reason, all that can be given should be given; +he should have every facility for learning what he can about this +earth, its composition, its capabilities; lest his intellect, crushed +and fettered by that artificial drudgery which we for a time miscall +civilisation, should begin to fancy, as too many do already, that the +world is composed mainly of bricks and deal, and governed by acts of +parliament. If I shall have awakened any townsmen here and there to +think seriously of the complexity, the antiquity, the grandeur, the +true poetry, of the commonest objects around them, even the stones +beneath their feet; if I shall have suggested to them the solemn +thought that all these things, and they themselves still more, are +ordered by laws, utterly independent of man's will about them, man's +belief in them; if I shall at all have helped to open their eyes that +they may see, and their ears that they may hear, the great book which +is free to all alike, to peasant as to peer, to men of business as to +men of science, even that great book of nature, which is, as Lord +Bacon said of old, the Word of God revealed in facts--then I shall +have a fresh reason for loving that science of geology, which has +been my favourite study since I was a boy. + + + +Footnotes: + +{1} See "Nature," No. XXV. (Macmillan & Co.) + +{2} These Lectures were delivered to the members of the Natural +Science Class at Chester in 1871. + +{3} See a most charming paper on "The Physics of Arctic Ice," by Dr. +Robert Brown of Campster, published in the Quarterly Journal of the +Geological Society, June, 1870. This article is so remarkable, not +only for its sound scientific matter, but for the vividness and +poetic beauty of its descriptions, that I must express a hope that +the learned author will some day enlarge it, and publish it in a +separate form. + +{4} See Lyell, "Antiquity of Man," p. 294 et seq. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWN GEOLOGY*** + + +******* This file should be named 10251.txt or 10251.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/5/10251 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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