Volume 1

A picture book of evolution / by Dennis Hird.

  • Dennis Hird
Date:
1906-1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A picture book of evolution / by Dennis Hird. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    what Sir Archibald Geikie says of them (p. 881) : “ The mere thickness and variety of the pre- Cambrian formations, together with their uncon- formabilities and other structural features, suffice to prove that they represent an enormous interval of time. In North America, where, so far as at present known [in 1903], they are most extensively developed, they are estimated to attain a thickness of more than 65,000 feet, or upwards of twelve miles, and have been regarded there as chronologically quite equal to the whole of the rest of the geological record.” Professor Cole says: “ The Archaean era is represented by so few fossils that no division into systems can be made. But probably it covers as long a series of periods in the history of life upon the globe as all the other eras put together.The oldest rocks of the Archaean group may, of course, represent periods before life actually existed. The beautiful ridge of Malvern, which stands up like a blue wave against the sunset, is now known to be the relic of an Archaean mountain range. It must have been several times buried in the sea, only to reassert itself as the most striking landmark of our midlands.” We cannot emphasise this fact too strongly, because it removes one of the greatest difficulties which some people have with regard to the evolu¬ tion of living forms. These objectors find in the early stratified rocks that several species of plants and animals are well developed and quite distinct, and they ask how can this be if evolution is true ? Now, when they have demonstrated how many million years it took to form these hard granite masses (the Archaean rocks) twelve miles thick, then it will be soon enough to affirm that there has
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