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Updated: May 14, 2025
Darwin has come, I cannot help adding that his hypothesis is perfectly satisfactory to my mind, and rises beyond a mere hypothesis into the true theory of coral-reefs." As the result of the clear exposition of the subject by Darwin, Lyell, Dana, and Jukes, the theory of coral-reefs had, by the middle of the present century, commanded the almost universal assent of both biologists and geologists.
I do not think the geologists fully appreciate what a difficult problem the origin of these rocks presents to the lay mind. They bulk so large, while the mass of original crystalline rocks from which they are supposed to have been derived is so small in comparison.
Chemists, geologists, mineralogists and old miners, have not done better than ignorant men and new-comers. Most of the best veins have been discovered by poor and ignorant men. Not one has been found by a man of high education as a miner or geologist.
This belief, and the natural anxiety with which he contemplates their prevalence, may excuse a certain vehemence and looseness of statement which were better avoided, as where the geologists of the day are said to be "broken up into bands of specialists, little better than scientific banditti, liable to be beaten in detail, and prone to commit outrages on common-sense and good taste which bring their otherwise good cause into disrepute;" and where he despairingly suggests that the prevalence of the doctrines he deprecates "seems to indicate that the accumulated facts of our age have gone altogether beyond its capacity for generalization, and, but for the vigor which one sees everywhere, might be taken as an indication that the human mind has fallen into a state of senility."
The danger of this confusion may be conceived when we remember that the number of species rejected from the Red Crag as derivative by Mr. Wood is no less than 25. Some geologists have held that on the same grounds it is necessary to exclude as spurious some of the species found in the Norwich Crag proper; but Mr.
Other causes, such as friction and crushing in the making of mountains and the chemical reactions between oxidizing agents of the crust and the unoxidized interior, have been suggested, but to most geologists they seem inadequate. There is much difference of opinion as to the FORCE which causes molten rock to rise to the surface in the ducts of volcanoes.
Thus there is a writing upon the wall of cliffs at Cromer, and whoso runs may read it. It tells us, with an authority which cannot be impeached, that the ancient sea-bed of the chalk sea was raised up, and remained dry land, until it was covered with forest, stocked with the great game the spoils of which have rejoiced your geologists.
Fossils are indices of geological formations, and must be grouped by formations to subserve the purpose of geologists. Fossils also have their biologic relations, and should be studied and arranged in biologic groups. Under the plan adopted by the Survey, the illustrations can be used over and over again for such purposes when needed, as reproduction can be made at the small cost of electrotyping.
In one case, as in the other, we observe normal deformations of a shrinking globe shielded from the erosive action of rain, which tends, on the contrary, in all the abundantly watered parts of the earth to make the concave surfaces predominate. The explanation of this structure, such as is admitted at present by geologists, seems to us equally valid for the moon."
It is the combined reports of three practical geologists employed by the Tecolote Company itself, though at a time preceding this suit and intended solely for the purposes of exploration.
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