58 MAN ON THE LANDSCAPE 



for the climate, for water behavior, and consequently for a large 

 part of rock disintegration into soils. 



The behavior of water warrants a call on the hydrologist, who 

 adds an explanation of how drainage patterns are formed, the me- 

 chanics of natural and man-induced erosion, the movement and 

 deposition of soil materials by water, and the work of streams. 



The meteorologist assists in telling of the role of weather and 

 climate in shaping the constantly changing topography of the earth, 

 their influence on soils, plants, and animals. 



The physicist details the laws which govern natural forces such 

 as the transporting and eroding power of running water, the kinetic 

 or dynamic energy of falling water, whether it be a raindrop knock- 

 ing a few soil particles downhill or Niagara whirling great turbines. 

 He explains how contraction and expansion by cold and heat, and 

 the swelling of water as it changes to ice, break down bedrock, 

 cliffs, boulders and smaller fragments into raw soils; how friction 

 and abrasion of moving materials, whether a glacier or a rock 

 particle rolling down a stream bed, are agencies in sand, silt and 

 clay formation. 



The chemist helps in gaining knowledge of earth minerals in 

 solution going to the sea or leaching down toward ground water 

 levels in the earth. He speaks of water combining with carbon 

 dioxide from the air and forming carbonic acid which in turn aids 

 in dissolving alkaline minerals in the rocks or rock particles. He 

 delves into the chemical composition and changes in rocks and 

 minerals. 



The geologist also has accumulated information concerning vari- 

 ous upheavals and subsidences, in which the mountain areas of 

 today were many times under sea or fresh water. Earthquakes have 

 modified the earth's surface, as have volcanoes and hot springs. 



All these sciences and more are necessary to explain in detail 

 the preparation by natural forces of a land environment suitable to 

 the simple life forms which followed. (The grievous error in our 

 educational system has been the segmentation of such knowledge so 

 that a very few people have been enabled to see the total environ- 

 ment and grasp the problems involved. A new and promising trend 

 in education is leading toward a break-down of departmental bar- 

 riers in secondary schools and colleges, to the end that the student 

 may get some idea of the unity of knowledge in its applications to 

 problems of living.) 



Life Improves Its Home. The seas and the land had developed 

 into a complex physical and chemical entity before life appeared, al- 

 though it is possible they occurred coincidentally. 2 It was a mineral 

 and climatic environment of considerable variety, especially on land. 

 Some evidence indicates that life is of electrical origin. (Nuclear 

 physicists have demonstrated that in atomic fission, the disintegration 

 of the atom transforms matter into pure energy). The traditional 

 belief is that spirit was and is involved in the creation of life. Regard- 



