Jan., H)1<1 The Future For Geologists 89 



to all animals. Probably too, life has become more diverse than 

 it was in the early geologic times, but after making all necessary 

 and reasonal)le allowances, it seems probable that we do not 

 yet know one per cent of the forms that have lived and possessed 

 hard parts, and certainly not more than one-tenth of one per 

 cent of all forms that have lived. Butterflies are preservable 

 in the geologic record. Twenty-two species have been described 

 half of which came from one place and one horizon, while there 

 have been described of living forms about 13,000 species. 

 With this present incompleteness of our knowledge, is it any 

 wonder that we do not succeed in establishing biologic con- 

 catenations as frequently as we wish? And how long will 

 it take to discover the rest of the 10,000,000 preserved species? 

 So far we can agree wath a statement of Huxley that "the whole 

 geologic record (at least so far as we know it) is only the skim- 

 mings of the pot of life. " 



5. In the field of dynamic geology — vulcanism, seismology, 

 diastrophism and gradation — the last process is really the only 

 one which w^e know. We cannot expect to understand vulcan- 

 ism, a perpetual and almost universal process throughout 

 geologic time, though not as much so as gradation, until at least 

 all present volcanoes have been carefully studied for time 

 sufficient to know their habits as well as we know those of 

 Vesuvius. We have been nearly 2,000 years learning Vesuvius, 

 and there are 500 living volcanoes, with 3,000 or more that 

 are dormant or recently extinct.* Not only should we know 

 their distribution and habits, but their connections and inter- 

 relations, the depths from which they draw their lavas, and 

 many other items to be obtained only by careful and long 

 continued observation of each volcano. Generalizations on 

 limited observations of a half dozen volcanoes cannot be consid- 

 ered final. Centuries of study of hundreds of vents cannot be 

 counted extravagant when one is after such fundamental and 

 deep-hidden truth. 



Earthquakes have but begun to tell their story. Many 

 records of all the larger quakes should be made. Then com- 

 parisons and computations may disclose facts not only about 

 earthquakes, but about the nature of the earth's interior. 



6. On this latter problem — the earth's interior — so little 

 is known that we feel that we know nothing, except that its 



*Pirsson and Schuchert, Text Book in Geology, Page 204. 



