CHAPTER IV

FACT NUMBER TWO

If we had ample evidence that a certain man was personally acquainted with Julius Caesar, that they were born in the same town, went to school together, served in the same wars, and later carried on an extensive mutual correspondence, would we not conclude that they must have lived in the same age of the world's history? I confess that the conclusion seems quite unavoidable. Who would dream that eighteen centuries or more had separated the two lives, and that while one was an old Roman the other was an American of the latter nineteenth century?

Some such a puzzle as this is presented in geology under the general subject of =conformability=. Let me define this term.

Strata laid down by water are in the first place in a horizontal position. Some subsequent force may have disturbed them, so that we may now find them standing up on edge like books in a library. But all human experience goes to show that they were not deposited in this position. Some disturbing cause must have taken hold of them since they were laid down, for the water in which they were made must have spread them out smooth and horizontal, each subsequent layer or stratum fitting "like a glove" on the preceding. Thus when we find two successive layers agreeing with one another in their planes of bedding, with every indication that the lower one was not disturbed in any way before the upper one was spread out upon it, the two are said to be =conformable=. But if the lower bed has evidently been upturned or disturbed before the other was laid down, or if its surface has even been partly eroded or washed away by the water, the strata are said to be =unconformable=, or they show =unconformability= in bedding.

Of course, in all this we are dealing only with =relative= time. When we find one bed or stratum lying above another in their natural position, the lower one is of course the older of the two; but whether laid down ten minutes earlier, or ten million years earlier, how are we to determine? Ignoring the matter of the fossils they contain, must we not own that, though there is no way of telling just how much longer the lower one was deposited before the next succeeding, yet if the two are conformable to one another, and the bottom one shows no evidence of disturbance or erosion before the other was fitted upon it, the strong presumption would seem to be that no great length of time could have elapsed between the laying down of the two layers. To say that we have here a geological example similar to that of a modern American having been personally acquainted with Julius Caesar, would seem to be quite "inexplicable," as Herbert Spencer used to say.

But if the life succession theory be true, we have just such a conundrum in our Fact Number Two, which is that =any formation whatever may rest conformably upon any other "older" formation=.

The lower may be Devonian, Silurian, or Cambrian, and the upper one Cretaceous or Tertiary, and thus according to the theory millions on millions of years must have elapsed after the first, and before the following bed was laid down, but the conformability is perfect, and the beds have all the appearance of having followed in quick succession. Sometimes, too, though less frequently, these age-separated formations are lithologically the same, and can only be separated by their fossils!

But before going into the minute description of any of these cases, we must notice some general statements. Thus as long ago as the date of the publication of "The Origin of Species," Darwin, in speaking of the "Imperfection of the Geological Record," could speak of "The many cases on record of a formation conformably covered, after an immense interval of time, by another and later formation, without the underlying bed having suffered in the interval by any wear and tear."[20]

Also Geikie,[21] in speaking of how "fossil evidence may be made to prove the existence of gaps which are not otherwise apparent," says that "It is not so easy to give a satisfactory account of those which occur where the strata are strictly conformable, and where no evidence can be observed of any considerable change of physical conditions at the time of deposit. A group of quite conformable strata having the same general lithological characters throughout, may be marked by a great discrepance between the fossils of the upper and the lower part." In many cases he says these conditions are "not merely local, but persistent over wide areas.... They occur abundantly among the European Palaeozoic and Secondary rocks," and are "traceable over wide regions."

We have seen how Dana admits that "A stratum of one era may rest upon any stratum in the whole series below it, ... the intermediate being wanting." He classes this under the head of the "=Difficulties=" of the science, quite naturally as it would seem, though he does not expressly assert that these age-separated formations are often =conformable= to one another, as Geikie and Darwin have said in the above given quotations.

The literature really teems with illustrations of these facts, and the more detailed accounts contained in the various Geological Reports are often quite charmingly _naive_ in their description of the conditions. Two examples, however, must suffice, both from the Canadian North West.

The first is from the Report on the region about Banff, in Alberta, near the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and just east of the Rockies.

"East of the main divide the Lower Carboniferous is overlaid in places by beds of Lower Cretaceous age, and here again, although the two formations differ so widely in respect to age, one overlies the other without any perceptible break, and the separation of one from the other is rendered more difficult by the fact that the upper beds of the Carboniferous =are lithologically almost precisely like those of the Cretaceous (above them.) Were it not for fossil evidence, one would naturally suppose that a single formation was being dealt with.="[22]

The other example is from the District of Athabasca.

"The Devonian limestone is apparently succeeded conformably by the Cretaceous, and with the possible exception of a thin bed of conglomerate of limited extent, which occurs below Crooked Rapid on the Athabasca, the age of which is doubtful, the =vast interval of time= which separated the two formations, is, so far as observed, =unrepresented= either by deposition or erosion."[23]

Of course, some geological writers labor to explain this thundering rebuke of their theory, just as the Ptolemaic astronomers had their "deterrents" and "epicycles" for every new difficulty. But surely the detailed records of such observations as these are fearful examples of the power of tradition to blind the minds of investigators to the meaning of the very plainest facts.

On a previous page (Id. p. 51,) the author last quoted gives us some idea of the "remarkable persistence" of this instructive case of conformability, which extends from the Athabasca "in a broad band around the southern end of Birch Mountains, and across Lake Claire to Peace River, and up the latter stream to a point two miles above Vermillion Falls."

The distance, as I judge from the map, can not be less than 150 miles in a straight direction, thus making a district of probably several thousand square miles in extent where, according to the theory of a life succession, nature must have put an injunction on the action of the elements, and they had to continue in the _status quo_ for millions of ages, or from the Devonian to the Cretaceous "age," the water neither wearing away nor building up over any part of this consecrated ground during all this time.

Nor is this all, for from Part E, Report (p. 209) of this same volume, we are told of strata near Lake Manitoba, =over 500 miles away=, in almost the same wonderful relationship,--"Devonian rocks very similar in character" to those in Athabasca still overlaid directly by the Cretaceous, though in this case as it happens "unconformably." It would almost seem to be a _bona fide_ case of Werner's onion coats cropping out.

And all this incredible picture of nature's inconsistent behaviour in past ages is necessitated solely by the loving allegiance with which the infallibility of the life succession theory is regarded by modern geologists.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] "Origin," Vol. II., p. 58: Sixth Ed. The first edition, I believe, contains the same language.

[21] "Text-Book," p. 842.

[22] Canadian "Annual Report," New Series, Vol. II., Part A, p. 8.

[23] "Annual Report," New Series, Vol. V., Part D, p. 52.