SC/ENCE-G(>::S/P. 



J 35 



Piecing fcogel her I lie aboi e fragments, as is show o 

 in fiu'- I. the strata appear to arrange themselves 

 into two lithological groups, the lower portion 

 consisting of shales, the upper of sandstones, fine 

 and coarse, with occasional boulder-layers, cor- 

 responding with Professor Green's description of 

 the Molteno group of strata ('). The shales pass 

 up conformably, though the transition is marked, 

 into the now era of sandstones; the change, if 

 borne out by fossil evidence, would be extremely 

 interesting. The sandstones at the top give 

 numerous evidences of having formed a land 

 surface before the dolerite overflow took place ; 

 this eireiunstance will prove of interest should 

 opportunity occur of tracing these strata into 

 other localities where Molteno beds are succeeded 

 by others of later date. 



Beyond small local disturbances of the strata, 

 their appearance is that of practical horizontality ; 

 there may be slight undulations which are not 

 appreciable to the eye in the comparatively small 

 sections seen; there maybe faults, but these again 



are ao\ visible in this locality, and are noi Indicated 

 bj the character of tlie rocks. Besides the visual 

 impression of horizontality, the rise of country 

 from west to east from 3,873 feel a1 Enslin bo 



1,.">17 feet al hloemfoiitein railwav station is 

 marked by a gradual change in the character of the 

 stratified rocks from shale- to sandstones. The 

 koppies at Enslin showed shales, those in this 

 locality show sandstones; while riolerite once 

 covered the whole expanse. As dp to the present 

 no interbedded sheets have been seen, it may per- 

 haps be found that this dolerite cap is the 

 " volcanic " series - of the Stormberg Beds, which 

 succeeds the Cave Sandstone, and the Red Beds, 

 these latter strata having disappeared in this 

 locality; at Enslin the Molteno strata also have 

 disappeared, while the dolerite capping of the hills 

 remains, pointing to denudation, having the same 

 line of action as in the present day, having occurred 

 before the volcanic period. The exact period of 

 this volcanic action remains to be seen. 

 Bloemfontein, May Slst, 1900. 



ON THE NATUKE OF LIFE. 



By Geoffrey Martin*. 



{Continued from page 75.) 



T^R. ALLEN (ante page 75) has by no means 

 *-^ disproved my assertion that in matter living 

 at ordinary temperatures there is no evidence to 

 show that nitrogen holds a central position. The 

 facts with which he supports this theory may, 

 with a little ingenuity, be twisted in favour of any 

 theory. They support my theory with as much force 

 as they support Dr. Allen's. To vaguely generalise 

 about the activities of nitrogen in different modes 

 of union, and to deduce therefrom the central 

 position of nitrogen in living matter, can hardly be 

 said to be conclusive. Something more definite is 

 required. Indeed, the long strings of linked 

 carbon atoms which are continually being excreted 

 by the living organism tell quite another tale — ■ 

 they indicate a framework of carbon that is con- 

 tinually breaking down. The nitrogen atoms may 

 be — nay, probably are, the centres of molecular 

 break-up in the organism — the points where the 

 linked carbon framework gives way ; but this is all 

 that can be said. Indeed, the specific functions 

 he attributes to nitrogen are almost inconceivable 

 from a chemical point of view. For instance, how 

 could an element as feeble as nitrogen — -an element 

 which can only with the greatest difficulty be 

 induced to combine with oxygen, or retain its 

 oxygen when combined, ever rob such an element 

 as carbon of its oxygen .' An action like this 

 never takes place in ordinary organic chemistry, 

 and very strong evidence must be furnished before 

 we can regard it as occurring in living matter. 



In the April number of Sctexce-Gossip (ante 

 p. 327) I suggested that living matter was not 

 suddenly created at ordinary temperatures, but has 

 descended in a continuous manner from a time 

 when the world was a wdiite-hot sea. According - 

 to this theory, the presence in protoplasm of 

 elements of high atomic weights, such as silicon, 

 phosphorus, arsenic, and so forth, are but the relics 

 of its slow evolution from the molten minerals of 

 the past. 



Dr. Allen objects to this view, because he 

 believes " the heat-production of our little world 

 could never have been sufficient to melt rocks at 

 its surface." He quotes the authority of Professor 

 Lapworth. In support of the opposite view — 

 namelj', that the world was once a red-hot globe — 

 I refer the reader to one who, at the very least. 

 is an equal authority. I mean, Lord Kelvin. He 

 treats the matter fully in a papier entitled " On the 

 Age of the Earth as an Abode fitted for Life 



Lord Kelvin's first argument is briefly this : — 

 Owing to tidal action the world is continually 

 rotating within a frictional collar of fluid sea. Its 

 speed of rotation is therefore continually diminish- 

 ing at a known rate. Calculating backwards, we 

 find that 7,200 million years ago the world was 

 rotating twice as fast as present. If the world 

 had solidified at this period, the eccentricity of 



i 1 ) Q..T.G.S. vol. xliv. No. 17 1. p. 246. 



(2) Tbid. pp. 240, 253. 



(3j "Phil. Mag." 1899, vol. i. p. Gt>. 



