The Earth and its Early History 



Much information had been accumulated as to the 

 nature of fossils and their mode of occurrence, and it 

 was slowly forced upon the observers of the period that 

 the fossils must be accepted as the remains of the life of 

 the past. 



At first it was supposed that all the fossils might be 

 of the same age, and their occurrence on mountain-tops 

 and other unlikely spots be accounted for by a universal 

 deluge, a view which was eagerly adopted by the theo- 

 logians who at once set about the linking up of this 

 great flood with the Noachian deluge. 



It was realized, however, by those who had first-hand 

 knowledge of the fossils and of the rocks in which they 

 were found, that the enormous masses of the latter could 

 not have been accumulated during any such brief episode 

 of the Earth's history, even if it could be shown on geo- 

 logical evidence to have occurred. 



Many writers set about proving that such a universal 

 deluge was possible, apparently under the impression 

 that to demonstrate the possibility of a thing was 

 equivalent to proving that it had really occurred. 



To give some idea of the very varied opinions which 

 were held on this point, it will be sufficient to mention 

 that while one writer believed that the Earth had 

 originally been covered by a universal ocean which had 

 been absorbed into the interior by the cracking of the 

 crust, another stated that at first the waters were inside, 

 and when the shell was cracked by the heat of the Sun 

 they rushed out and so produced the deluge. 



Realizing that the rocks containing the remains of 

 living creatures represented a long period of time, R. 

 Hooke (1668) believed that one day it might be possible, 



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