JOURNAJ. AND PROCEEDINGS. 129 
WHERE THE EARTH FIRST CRUSTED ; WHERE 
MAN FIRST LIVED. 
Read before the Astronomical. Section of the Hamilton Scientific 
Association, May 27th, 1904. 
BY SREY. D> B: MARSH, SC:. D: 
It is thought by some that this is purely a religious problem, 
others that it is purely scientific; but looking at the subject carefully, 
as I have been doing for some years back, I have no difficulty in 
concluding that it requires the united efforts of theology, philosophy 
and science in all their varied branches. You will see at a glance 
that I have two problems to deal with: rst, Where the earth first 
crusted ; 2nd, Where man first lived, or, in other words, the location 
of the Garden of Eden. 
Now, in dealing with the first, I shall have to confine myself 
chiefly to scientific facts, and enter perhaps somewhat into general 
geogony, that is, the science of the origin of the earth. 
I wish to say nothing for or against the so-called Nebular 
Hypothesis of the origin of the world, as the friends and foes of this 
unproven hypothesis believe in what is termed the secular cooling 
or refrigeration of the earth, which is sufficient for my purpose, 
although, let me say, that I have no sympathy for the six-day 
creation theory as held by some, that is, that the earth was created 
in six literal days. That the earth was millions of years in reaching 
the conditions of habitability I think is without doubt, although I 
see by the Mail and Empire of May 23rd an account of Professor 
McDonald, Professor of Physics at McGill University, in a lecture 
before the Royal Institute, submitted the striking suggestion that 
the earth’s heat was not attributable to the theory of a molten mass 
which has been slowly cooling for millions of years, but to the 
presence of Radium. 
I think that it is premature for us to lay any particular stress 
upon the suggestion that the earth’s heat is due to Radium, and for 
the present, at least, I hold to the old orthodox theory as has just 
