THE LONG ROAD 



river valleys and gorges cut a mile deep in the 

 Colorado canyon, and yet this canyon is but of yes 

 terday in geologic time. Only give the evolutionary 

 god time enough and all these miracles are surely 

 wrought. 



Truly it is hard for us to realize what a part time 

 has played in the earth s history, just time, dur 

 ation, so slowly, oh, so slowly, have the great 

 changes been brought about! The turning of mud 

 and silt into rock in the bottom of the old seas seems 

 to have been merely a question of time. Mud does 

 not become rock in man s time, nor vegetable mat 

 ter become coal. These processes are too slow for us. 

 The flexing and folding of the rocky strata, miles 

 deep, under an even pressure, is only a question of 

 time. Allow time enough and force enough, and a 

 layer of granite may be bent like a bow. The crys 

 tals of the rock seem to adjust themselves to the 

 strain, and to take up new positions, just as they do, 

 much more rapidly, in a cake of ice under pressure. 

 Probably no human agency could flex a stratum of 

 rock, because there is not time enough, even if there 

 were power enough. &quot;A low temperature acting 

 gradually,&quot; says my geology, &quot; during an indefinite 

 age would produce results that could not be other 

 wise brought about even through greater heat.&quot; 

 &quot;Give us time,&quot; say the great mechanical forces, 

 &quot;and we will show you the immobile rocks and your 

 rigid mountain chains as flexible as a piece of 



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