408 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



whether the appearances presented in the mineral conditions and physical 

 aspects of the rock-strata, to which they thus apply them, are such as to m^icate 

 then- having been formed under lilce or under dis-similar conditions ; while our 

 correspondent contents himself with a broad and unsubstantiated denial of all 

 fact and fiction, and tells us it is quite as easy to suppose one thin^ as another, 

 a conclusion it requu'es no great amount of logic to arrive at. Neither is there 

 any logic whatever in his association of the length of the days of creation, as 

 Witten in the Mosaic account, w4th the periods of tune required by geologists 

 for the development of the earth to its present conditions. The length of 

 time the great rock-masses have taken m their formation, the length of time 

 the earth has existed are the logical deductions from very exact and scrupu- 

 lously examined data — data and deductions which have passed through the 

 most violent and persecuting opposition, unrivalled only by the memorable at- 

 tack upon the scientific truth developed by that foremost of astronomers, 

 Galileo. Geology presents us in its statements on this topic with accurately 

 logical deductions, but linguists and theologists have not presented us with the 

 like exact and logical interpretations of Holy Writ. Geologists are labouring 

 incessantly in the acqukement of new information, and have so far laboured in- 

 comparably more earnestly and incessantly to effect a reconciliation of these 

 passages referred to than theologists themselves ; and whenever the thorough 

 harmony is effected, probability certainly points to the side of geologists as the 

 accompiishers. 



Our correspondent is again at fault as to the extent of territory examined by 

 geologists. He ignores the great geological surveys which England, America, 

 Holland, and other countries have established. He forgets hov/ Englishmen, 

 Erenchmen, Americans, and the citizens of every great and civilized country 

 roam and travel over far-off lands, and bring back to us volumes of information 

 long before the roUing tide of civilization reaches the shores of the remote lands 

 they have explored. If every inch of ground is not probed to the quick, at least 

 the general ostensible features of very vast extents of territory are as fully 

 known as to satisfy the keen scientific observer that no great modification of 

 his general deductions are requh^ed. Every new region penetrated by the ad- 

 venturous explorer adds to the consolidation of the previous deductions, and 

 confirms instead of shaking into doubtfulness. 



In takmg up his third point, our correspondent is far away indeed from a 

 right comprehension of geological teaching. No one must think by the mere 

 reading of one or two geological treatises that he can, as geology stands at 

 this present tune as a progressive science, arrive at a proper estimation or 

 knowledge of that vast and stupendous science. It is perhaps only by the 

 labour of a life-tune, and under the divine blessing of a powerful intellect, that 

 any man can become a thorough geologist. More intricate and labyrinthine 

 even than astronomy is the science with which he has to deal. Time, the great 

 feature of the one, is as boundless as space, the great feature of the other ; and 

 the knowledge of the phenomena of the depths below the sui-face of our globe 

 is as difiicult of acquirement as the penetration of the vision into the realms of 

 the outer worlds around us. Astronomy must be limited by the capabilities of 

 the telescope and the vibrations of the pendulum ; but Geology is the physical 

 history of our motlier-earth from the first-days of its birth unto the end of tune 

 — it is a great volume which no man's Hfe will suffice for the reading. 



It is the difficulty often, so numerous are the ramifications of the data forming 

 11)0 groundwork upon which geological statements are made, of stating such 

 giouiul-work concisely and explicitly that gives in many cases the appearance 

 of illogical writing; and AA-ithout going through the' details of our corres- 

 pondciii'^ third and cmirlnding portions of his communication, it will be easy 

 for our v(-a(lcrs 1o perceive how the coddensation, in time, of the geological 



