August 25, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



lOI 



SCIENCE: 



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A GEOLOGICAJL";SKETCH, WITH NOTES ON THE 



GEOLOGY OF THE MANITOU ISLANDS OF 



LAKE NIPISSING, ONTARIO. 



BY 3. M. CtOODWILLIE, OTTAWA, CANADA. 



Geology is that particular branch of scientific study 

 which treats of the history of the earth ; its organization 

 and structure, the materials of which it is composed and 

 the various processes by which it has attained its present 

 constitution. 



The term Geology is derived from two Greek words: 

 ge, the earth, and logos, a history or description. 



As history, we must consider it apart from the records 

 of human action and human j^i'Ogress, — a histoi-y dis- 

 closed to, us by the record and study of the rock masses 

 which lie around us and beneath us, and by comparing 

 the results of the natural phenomena of the past with the 

 numerous forces and agencies at present in operation, 

 in modifying the surface of the globe. 



By the term rock, in geology, is not to be understood 

 merely that hard material which we commonly call stone, 

 but it is employed to include everything of which the 

 earth's crust is composed. The sand and gravel of our 

 lake shores, the clays employed in the manufacture of 

 brick and earthenware, the limestone and marble and 

 sandstone of oiir provincial quarries, the pebbles and 

 bowlders by the roadside, and the soil of which our gar- 

 dens and farms are comjjosed are all, geologically speak- 

 ing, rock, equally with the granite of our hills and moun- 

 tains. 



The determination of the materials of which rocks are 

 composed belongs to the deijartment of mineralogy and 

 which, although not identical with geology, is closely 

 allied to it. 



Geology endeavors to account for the rock masses and 

 various materials of which the earth is constructed. It 

 aims at answering the enquiry, how have these things 

 been formed and what are the processes by which they 

 esist ? Mineralogy examines into the nature and charac- 

 ter of the materials, and analyzes and resolves into its 

 component parts the various ingredients of which a rock 

 is compiosed. 



The study of geology reveals the fact almost every- 

 where j)atent in our surroundings, that we live in the 

 midst of a rocky area, which upon investigation, proves to 

 belong to the oldest known rocks in existence, and forms 

 what we might term the foundation stones of the super- 

 structure of our world. 



Mineralogy shows us what the rocks contain, whether 



iron, or copper, or galena, or nickel, or silver, or gold, or 

 platinum, and the modes of their occurrence; so that by a 

 careful study of the conditions in which they are usually 

 found, the investigator and prospector may be saved 

 much unnecessary expenditure of time and labor in 

 searching after the concealed wealth which lies hidden 

 from the easy observation of man. 



Geology does not attempt to account for the origin of 

 the world, but the careful study of it gives us the only 

 intelligible solution that can be entertained of the causes 

 which must have operated in producing its present ap- 

 pearance, and the diversity everywhere apparent in its 

 structure. 



To a higher than any human source must we look for an 

 answer to the inquiry into the origin of the world. In the 

 sublime and indisputable declaration with which the book 

 of Divine Revelation opens, there is given us the only 

 satisfactory answer that can anywhere be found and 

 which must forever prove sufficient, not only as it relates 

 to this terrestrial sphere, but also to the universe of un- 

 enumerated worlds of which this earth is, comparatively 

 speaking, only an insignificant part: "In the beginning 

 God created the heavens and the earth." 



In that opening announcement of the book of God we 

 are not only carried back to an indefinite, and it might be 

 said an almost unlimited period, but we are also reminded 

 that He who by his own almighty word "spake and it was 

 done," and "commanded and it stood fast," did not then 

 create the world as it at present exists. We are reminded 

 that there was a time when the earth was without a 

 human inhabitant, when no rain had yet fallen ui^on it, 

 and when "there was not a man to till the gTound." 

 There was a time, further back, when our forests were un- 

 inhabited by wild beasts, and our marshes and lowlands 

 untenanted by the almost numberless creeping things 

 which make these resorts their abode. There was a time, 

 still further back, when our streams and lakes and seas 

 were without inhabitant, when there were no monarchs of 

 the deep to engage in bloody encounters, and contest 

 with each other the right of occupancy, and when there 

 was no fowl of any kind to fly in the heavens, nor song- 

 sters to awaken the morning with notes of rejoicing and 

 triumph. 



There was a time, yet more distant, when the earth was 

 destitute of vegetation of any kind, when no forests 

 clothed our hills and mountains, when no grasses grew 

 upon our plains, nor made verdant the valleys of our 

 water courses, and when herbs, and fruits and flowers 

 had not yet begun an existence prej)aratory to the intro- 

 duction of animals and of man in particular. 



There was a time, still more remote, when no mountain 

 chains existed, with here and there lofty peaks penetrat- 

 ing the clouds and towering high towards heaven, and 

 when there were no hills with accompanying vallej's hol- 

 lowed out among them. 



There was a time, more distant still, when the earth 

 appeared as one vast expanse of boundless sea, when 

 islands and continents had not appeared above the surface 

 of the great and mighty ocean, when "darkness was ujDon 

 the face of the deei?," and when, in all the illimitable 

 dreary waste of waters, life and animation were entirely 

 unknown. 



Stej) by step the Creator was gradually j^reparing the 

 earth to be the residence of the human race. Slowly and 

 deliberately He brought about the necessary changes, all 

 of whose workings are particularly distinguished by the 

 absence of that spirit of haste and restless impatience so 

 commonly manifested in the undertakings of man. 



The time occufiied in bringing about the piresent con- 

 dition of things, as apparent throughout the world, must 

 have been an indefinitely long period. Sacred science. 



