Press enter after choosing selection

Time Measures

Time Measures image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
November
Year
1876
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

[Frrim tho Now Vort: nWdh] The ötiia&ni of Bcienco at this day will find that not only "timos changp," but timo moosures. ,'Tho. elqck which now diVides the geölogical " day" is not o Same as that usad bf our fathera. I Lyell's measuremonts are even iiow being superseded by Thomsou's. In the flrst iirgum: nta of men of science against the apparent account of creation in the opening cbapters of Qeuesis, it was Kssnmod, that tfte nsw meaaul-emènts of geology wete ckadt. They cluimed a speóifiö alld Vflflt antiqnity to the world. The Biblical defenderá soon discovered that the "day"of creation was like the "dayof Brahnia" in the Hindoo cosmogony, an indefinito period, and they, therefore eedBed to dispute the immehSe ago 'elaimed for tlio ettïth. 'f he argument oí . ïtié geoogist was ove oí in'diiV'-tiohv Ibft See deposito gtiing on now at the rato, say of one foot for 1,000 yeara, and you llnd iu England 72,500 f eet of mioj8ÍVe foi'mation, and infer i'.UïiUön of 72,500,000 ypsw, ti: an observer judges f rom eerj tain ancient landmarks that denudotion goes on at tho rato of one foot for 5,000 years, and deposite at tho Bftino ai lmJ infera a period of 100,000,000 yertrft for a finóle MrÜaAláOQ ÍHib Cilurian). Then tl reaooliüig was carried furthor, and a form of life diseovered in the oldest ' strata, which bad been depositinar during this vast rfodj ac jjïonouuced to poseer; ia Vast antiquity, and wherever this {oefiü was afterward found this antíquiíy wns inferred. When, at lengíc. the oldest formation in this eoaufry, the Jjaurenüan, was belieVed to eontain organiüed life (the Eozoon}, ■ with the fragmente of anüienfc stratifiod rock. 9, pierioÜ of time appeared probI able for the earth, which was simply incomprehensible. ÍFor, beyond and beore all the deposita we kHow were the remains of üncient and slow deposite, which had been metamorphosed and flnaliy disintegrated. These calculations, however, all contained certain errors, which, it is remarkable, were not sooner observod It ia a nutnber of years since a writir i - tterbert pencei:, who ia hot a geolope$, bht who applied a aubtle brain to Uiese questions - raaintained that similarity of deposits does not prove contemporaneity ; that Í9 'f oü llnd a cortain itTvtltí. ïu one country, with its characteristic f ossils, you have no means of knowing that it was deposited at the same time with a ike rock in another country. Ohalk is now formipg ín tlio bottom of tho Atlantic, precisely like thatformed 500,000 years ago. Evidently this reasoning breaks down one argument for any precise antiquity of a given rock. Then it ia f urther maintained now by geologists, contrary, to Darwiu n.fd Lvell, tliRt unlikti grölips of rocks are orten contemporaneous. Prof. Ramsay furnished Mr. Darwin with some of his enormous measurements of rock thickness by supposing that the strata representa a continuoua pile. But the deposits ar fov.nd to oterláp ohe anothor, and periods, such as palezoic, meaozoic and cenozoic, cover each other, and do not correspond for both sea and land, or for different continente. The measurement from this source ia uncertain, In regard to the Laurentiani it is still questioned whether the Eoaooü is organic, and the fragments foüud in it may be merely the debris of the first portion of the earth's crust which cooled. The inductivo measuremonts are also extremely delusive. Doposits are not regular, and denudation is extremely variable. On our western coast a singlo stormy night wïll produce a devastation which years of ordinary weather had not occasioned. But the great and convincing argumenta against thpse almoat innumerable periode are derived from the investigations of the physicists. From tliQ rate of cooling of the earth and its present form, Prof. Tait deduces an antiquity of only 10,000,000 or 15,000,000 of years. Sir William Thomson lengthena it to possibly 100,000,000. At present these estimates aro somewhat wide of one another, but, as iuvestigation proceeds, they must approach greater accuracy, and fiually should give conclusions far more trustworthy than any furniahed by geology. Still the error oí' La Place in Ms famous calculation in regard to the acceleration of the moon's motion shows that even astronomy and mathem&tical physics are not infallible. If the antiquity of the earth be diminiehed by a probable argument, one mainBtay of evolution is broken. The theories of development, uniformitarianism and vast antiquity aro all branches of one stem. Uarwin himself, whatever j Husley may say, tinds enormous periotls of time necessary ior the changes he believeg in. Organized life has changed, but impereeptdbly under natural selection in the historie period, and but little more since the glacial period. Tho iol lowor of Lyell cannot consistently urgo a faster cliange in a given period once than now. If time be cut off, the plulosophioal evolutionist is in a dilemma. X'o the believer in the scriptures, the iength of the "doy" of creation is a mattor of indiffertnee. The saered narrative allows boundless time for "the begiuning;" the various " days" may be periods of greater or lesa extensión, and the creatious, or appearances of life in them, may correspond more or less closely with the very uncertain conclusions of modern geology, without disfurbing hia faith in the spiritual object and inspiration of tho good. War Trappings of an lndiau Citief. The Smithsonian Instituto received recf-ntly a valuable and iuteresting addition to its museum in the shapo of a complete and very fine outfit of "tho war trappings of an lndiau chief. The contribution comea from west of the Rocky mountains, but no letter of transmisaion or description has been as yet received. Tho suit consista of a very fine headdress of red flaunol, trimmed and decorated with beadwork and eagle's feathcrs. Tho long train which descends from the bead and over the should&rs is also fringed with eagle's feathers. Thero is an undershirt which is worn next the skin. It ia of red flannel als-j, with a black and white border, and is sewn over with elk tooth. The suit includes a pair of war leggiugs of red cloth, highly decoratod with thick beadwork in altérnate squares of dark blue and light blue boads, and with fringeb of buokskin down the sides. The war-shirt, worn outside, is of buckskin, ornamented with bead8 and human hair, and is painted on the breast and shouldcr. In addition to these articles there is a complete flowing shabraque, which is worn over the shoulders with the ends falling on oach side of tho weaier. It is worn ouly when the chief is mounted, as a chiof is nat fond of carrying muoh weighty apparel or accoutrement, and is of flannel, faced with otter skin. To this is attached the bow-case and quivercaso, which are both heavily ornamentcd with beadwork in various colora. Thero carne with tho suit a pair of squaw'o leggiugs of red flannel, very thickly and tastefully sewu with boadwork. Theso articlps could not have cost less than soxno $200 in the aggreiiil the thick ori.amontal boadv,-ork is very costly. ThO Catacombs. Rome and the ailjaccnt Ciinipagua lies upon a stratnm of soft, porous, volcauic rook, called tufa. It is in this that the oataoombe - the Ohristiau cenietorics of the lirst fonr ceuturies - aro excavated. coueist of g UerioH, from üve to eight or ten feet high, aad from two to üvo "o(;t wide, jiewii in the rock, aud ccame croea gajuuiej, iorming ac iütrioate uetwork oí iñterraoean sages. Opening into theso are many small chambors called cabicala, square or circular in form, with dome-shaped roof. ñútheroÜs shaftö Lioíc5 tbft superincnmbent soil, giving ventilatiou, and admitting light. The wbolo nuniber of the cijtaeontba típtr known is sotnothing over föïty. A fëiï cölümi-'v"': ■■ with each other, bnt they are mostly separate, like adjacent cemeteries in the open air. The entire cxtent of the galleries ia estimated to be not lesa than 600 miles.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus