82 
GOLDEN AGE IN GEOLOGY 
its generation and through its own charmed circle a Golden Age 
for his selected company. 
Admittedly the most brilliant concepts in the annals of geologi¬ 
cal science are those hypotheses which hover over Great Basin des¬ 
erts. Yet few claims called scientific have so insecure foundations. 
One after another of these grand thoughts dissolve into the chill, 
thin air from whence they came, at first breath of sirocco breeze. 
Were they but realities instead of mighty figments of the imagin¬ 
ation a Golden Age of Geology might be complacently proclaimed. 
When these brilliant conceptions were set free to the winds their 
features were measured not by new but by old and foreign stand¬ 
ards. This it was that made them so sensational, so astounding. 
Then no such thing as a special desert geology was yet even faint¬ 
ly adumbrated upon the field of our science. The relative effi¬ 
ciencies of the erosional processes were not yet determined. True 
method of desert denudation was unknown. The novel effects 
of arid physiography remained unrecognized. Undreamed were 
both the potency of desert wind-scour, and the grand scale of arid 
deflation. In view of these circumstances the Golden Age of 
Geology is not upon us. It must be long deferred. Certainly it 
is not in sight of men now living. 
What pity is it that there could not be, during the life-time of 
those living, a Golden Age in Geology. What a distinguished 
company of sparkling wits it would have been if only those 
thoughts had proved to be true, if only there had been fact instead 
of fiction. Where else in the history of Science is there grander 
assemblage. The vast Tertiary lakes covering half a continent, 
fire seas illimitable spreading out over Idaho plains, fault-block 
simplicity of the desert ranges whereby stupendous rock piles are 
fancied to be floating upon the liquid interior of earth, much as 
ice-cakes in a northern river jam, the pari passu rising of moun¬ 
tain masses as their summits are depleted, sudden springing into 
being of vast fresh-water lakes where desert stood but short while 
before as genetic result of antipodal glaciation, recent lowering of 
the groundwater table thought to be demonstrated by the occur¬ 
rence of sulphide ores high above the present levels, blistering of 
the earth’s cuticle through volcanic abortion, shortening of earth’s 
crust through its fracture in place of its flexure, are only a few of 
the larger concepts which intertwined might add weight to make 
