SOILS. 3 



tion of a cooling globe that was in the beginning a fused or 

 molten mass. 



After the globe had sufficiently cooled, the moisture in the 

 air began to condense and thus shallow oceans were formed and 

 the atmosphere contained an enormous amount of watery vapor 

 and carbon-dioxide for the maintenance of a luxurious vegetation 

 on the borders of the oceans. 



First there probably appeared rudimentary plants such as 

 mosses. They derived their nourishment from the air and 

 moisture, and became fixed to the rocks and by maintaining 

 humidity facilitated and hastened the process of disintegration. 



FIG. 3. The course of civilization. FIG. 4. 



Man's work An orchard in 

 bloom. 



When these plants that grew on rocks began to decay they 

 left their debris with organic matter in the fissures of the rocks 

 for the nourishment of more perfect forms of plant life. Thus 

 we see the first steps toward vegetable life of the highest order. 

 Trees were finally seen growing in the fissures of rocks becoming 

 still more powerful agents in the transformation of rocks into 

 soils. 



There was a prodigious vegetation which absorbed an enor- 

 mous amount of carbonic-acid gas ; the vegetation was not de- 

 composed in some places, and it was conserved under the water 

 and the oxygen became fixed, instead of being restored to the 

 atmosphere, and this is the carbon that we are burning today in 

 the form of oil, gas and coal. 



When the rains could not enter or permeate the hard primi- 



