THROUGH THE GEOLOGIST S EYES 



his cup on the seashore. Looked at from our point 

 of view, the great geological processes often seem 

 engaged in world-destruction rather than in world- 

 building. Those oft-repeated invasions of the con 

 tinents by the ocean, which have gone on from 

 Archaean times, and during which vast areas which 

 had been dry land for ages were engulfed, seem like 

 world-wide catastrophes. And no doubt they were 

 such to myriads of plants and animals of those 

 times. But this is the way the continents grew. All 

 the forces of the invading waters were engaged in 

 making more land. 



The geologist is bold; he is made so by the facts 

 and processes with which he deals; his daring affirm 

 ations are inspired by a study of the features of the 

 earth about him ; his time is not our time, his hori 

 zons are not our horizons; he escapes from our human 

 experiences and standards into the vast out-of-doors 

 of the geologic forces and geologic ages. The text 

 he deciphers is written large, written across the face 

 of the continent, written in mountain-chains and 

 ocean depths, and in the piled strata of the globe. 

 We untrained observers cannot spell out these 

 texts, because they are written large; our vision is 

 adjusted to smaller print; we are like the school-boy 

 who finds on the map the name of a town or a river, 

 but does not see the name of the state or the con 

 tinent printed across it. If the geologist did not 

 tell us, how should we ever suspect that probably 

 89 



