EDITOR'S TABLE. 



493 



gravels, and sands, still lying undisturbed 

 ill the ancient beds ; 2. The system of pro- 

 found canons from 2,000 to 5,000 feet deep, 

 whioli score the flanks of the great moun- 

 tain-chains, and form such a fascinating 

 object of study, and not less of wonder, be- 

 cause the gorges were altogether carved out 

 since the beginning of the glacial period ; 3. 

 The modern rivers, mere echoes of their 

 parent streams of the early quaternary age. 

 As between these three the early quater- 

 nary rivers stand out as vastly the most 

 powerful and extensive. The present rivers 

 are utterly incapable, with infinite time, to 

 perform the work of glacial torrents. So, 

 too, the Pliocene streams, although of very 

 great volume, were powerless to wear their 

 way down into solid rocks thousands of 

 feet at the rapid rate of the early quater- 

 nary floods. Between these three systems 

 of rivers is all the difference which sepa- 

 rates a modern (uniformitarian) stream and 

 a terrible catastrophic engine, the expres- 

 sion of a climate in which struggle for ex- 

 istence must have been something absolute- 

 ly inconceivable when considered from the 

 water precipitations, floods, torrents, and 

 erosions, of to-day. 



" Uuiformitarians are fond of saying that 

 give our present rivers time, plenty of time, 

 and they can perform the feats of the past. 

 It is mere nonsense in the case of the caiions 

 of the Cordilleras. They could never have 

 been carved by the pygmy rivers of this cli- 

 mate to the end of infinite time. And, as 

 if the sections and profiles of the canons 

 were not enough to convince the most skep- 

 tical student, there are left hundreds of dry 

 river-beds, within whose broad valleys, 

 flanked by old steep banks, and eloquent 

 with proofs of once-powerful streams, there 

 is not water enough to quench the thirst 

 even of a uniformitarian. Those extinct 

 rivers, dead of drought, in connection with 

 the great canon system, present perfectly 

 overwhelming evidence that the general 

 deposition of aerial water, the consequent 

 floods and torrents, forming, as they all do, 

 the distinct expression of a sharply-defined 

 cycle of climate, as compared either with 

 the water phenomena of the immediately 

 preceding Pliocene age, or with our own 

 succeeding condition, constitute an age of 

 water-catastrophe whose destructive power 

 we only now begin distantly to suspect." 



Having given his reasons for reject- 

 ing the idea of uniformity in the course 

 of Nature, especially in Western Amer- 

 ica, Mr. King proceeds to connect his 



view with the question of Evolution. 

 It is imputed to him hy the newspapers 

 that he arrays Catastrophe against Evo- 

 lution, to the destruction of the latter 

 doctrine ; but this is an error. He la- 

 bors to show the inadequacy of Mr. Dar- 

 win's theory of natural selection to ex- 

 plain organic development ; but, as we 

 have said, again and again, Darwinism 

 is not Evolution, and the most eminent 

 evolutionists recognize the tendency to 

 load the law of natural selection with 

 a good deal more than it can carry. 

 Mr. King recognizes that the principle 

 of the " survival of the fittest " is a 

 true principle that has played an im- 

 portant part in organic progress, but 

 which is supplemented by otlier agen- 

 cies in the general scheme of Evolution. 

 That Catastrophism is not regarded as 

 fatal to Evolution is at least true of one 

 of its most illustrious representatives, 

 for Mr. King remarks, " Huxley, per- 

 meated in every fibre by belief in Evo- 

 lution, feels that even to-day Catastro- 

 pliism is not yet wholly out of the 

 possibilities." And speaking of the 

 two theories of unqualified Uniformi- 

 tarianism and universal Catastrophism 

 (as held by Cuvier), Mr. King declares 

 that he rejects them, and says : " Hux- 

 ley alone among prominent evolution- 

 ists opens the door for a union of the 

 residua of truth in the two schools, 

 fusing them in his proposed ' Evolu- 

 tional Geology.' Looking back over a 

 trail of 30,000 miles of geological travel, 

 and after as close a research as I am 

 capable, I am impelled to say that his 

 far-sighted view precisely satisfies my 

 interpretation of the broad facts of the 

 American Continent." 



In this conception of evolutional 

 geology, Mr. King is led to assign a 

 higher place than has hitherto been al- 

 lowed to what he terms "evolution of 

 environment," which he regards as a 

 distinct branch of geology that must 

 soon take a recognized form. He as- 

 sumes a property of plasticity in organ- 

 isms, by which they are capable of ac- 



