The Geological Story Briefly Told 85 



A Summary of Geologic History 



In this chapter an attempt has been made to pass over in 

 panoramic review the history of California from its beginning 

 to the present. In years the lapse of time passes beyond the 

 grasp of the human mind. In number of years the time can- 

 not probably be expressed in less than 10 figures. A decade, 

 a generation, even a century, we can comprehend. But a 

 thousand years, a million years, which takes us back only to a 

 geologic yesterday, leaves the mind agasp as in imagination the 

 great panorama of the past rolls backward toward the Begin- 

 ning, to the third "day" when "the waters were gathered to- 

 gether into one place, and the dry land appeared." To attempt 

 to grasp geologic time in terms of billions of years, goes beyond 

 finite understanding except in a relative or comparative way. 



If land in California stood above the level of the sea in 

 Archaean time which it probably did then California's his- 

 tory can be truthfully said to go back to the very ancient, to 

 the geologic Beginning. Professor Barrell has deduced by 

 studies of the atomic behavior of lead studies that are beyond 

 the understanding of most of us that geologic time is vastly 

 longer than has been commonly supposed. The writer, as a 

 student, tried to reach some conclusions as to the age of the 

 earth based on astronomical and physical data. Lord Kelvin, 

 an eminent English astro-physicist, reached an estimate of 

 something like 100 million years that the sun had been shining 

 upon the earth. Under the latest studies of the problem of 

 geologic time 100 million years carries us back to a geologic 

 yesterday! The Archaean lands that stood above the world- 

 wide ocean, islands which are thought to have existed in Cali- 

 fornia, date back beyond what can be expressed in millions, and 

 10 figures are required. The geological story has not yet been 

 fully written. Upheavals by which lands have been elevated 

 above the sea are shown in the record of the rocks. Great 



