NO. 402.] EVENTS IN GEOLOGIC RECORDS. 501 
Cases might be multiplied, but the point I wish to make is 
apparent: an interpretation of the history recorded in strata is 
an absolute necessity if we are to picture the past. Recorded 
facts must be made to reveal unrecorded events. It is only 
from the conclusions drawn that we can give the picture life; 
if they be wrong, the picture becomes distorted, perchance a 
monstrosity. Unusual events now happen, hence our right to 
believe that they have happened in the past. They are at times 
shrouded in deep obscurity — hidden, it may be, in a mass of 
intricate details. Often they are confined to a single locality, 
but they may affect an unusually large area. However this 
may be, the greatest care is necessary lest we pass them by 
unnoticed, and the greatest caution, should they be discov- 
ered, lest we misinterpret them. Human speculation does not 
always admit of proof, but when based upon facts, as it should 
be in geologic interpretation, it may at least approximate the 
truth. 
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN, TEXAS. 
