Outlines of Creation

by Elisha Noyce

Now assuming it as a fact that the earth was once in a gaseous state, and that the atoms of this gas or vapour exerted (as they must have done) an attraction towards each other, the result would be that they would press immensely upon those parts towards the centre and cause them to solidify. This act of solidification would produce such an intense heat that the solid would be expanded and fused into a liquid, this continuing until all the more condensible matters had become liquid, the earth would assume its spheroidal form from its rotation, be surrounded by an atmosphere of the least easily condensible substance, nitrogen, together with all the oxygen not wanted to combine with the metallic vapour and form earth. This globe with its atmosphere continuing to roll through the cold regions of space, would gradually lose the heat from its outer part by radiation. A film of cooled and condensed earthy matter would begin to form on the surface by crystallisation, and then would commence all those grand phenomena which it is the province of the geologist to study and explain. This crust consisted of the first-formed granite which (from inequality of contraction in the bulk of the earth) was broken up into fragments and perhaps partly re-dissolved again and again in some places, as it chanced that these contractions were more or less irregular. The result of this crushing and crumbling-up is seen in the coarser parts of the gneiss, called "Grauwacke," which consist of angular fragments of granite more or less imbedded in a cement of the same substance. This could not have been produced by water, as the surface must have been too hot for it to have existed on the earth in any other form than the most highly rarefied steam combined with the atmosphere, and in all probability partly condensed in the upper regions, forming a continuous strata of clouds, or rather water, through which the sun could hardly be seen or its light penetrate, and such a state of things exists at this present time in the planet Jupiter. How beautifully does this coincide with the Mosaic account, "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the earth."

The surface of the earth at this time can be well understood by any one who will take the pains to evaporate any saline solution in a capsule till it is about to crystallise, and observe attentively the pellicle of salt as it forms on the surface; first a partial film will show itself in a few places, floating about and joining with others, then when nearly the whole surface is coated, it will break up in some places and sink into the liquid beneath, another pellicle will form and join with the remains of the first, and as this thickens it will push up ridges and inequalities of the surface from openings and fissures in which little jets of steam and fluid will escape; these little ridges are chains of mountains, the little jets of steam those volcanic eruptions which were at that period so frequent; the surface of the capsule is the surface of the earth, and the five minutes which the observer has contemplated it, a million years.

The next effect of the cooling of the earth would be the gradual condensation of the vapour of water with which it was surrounded; this falling upon the earth formed seas and oceans, leaving only the higher portions exposed above its level. The clearing-up of the dense dark clouds for the first time let in to the earth's surface the glorious and vivifying rays of the sun, and this great effect possibly accords with the earliest record in the Bible of the acts of creation—"And God said, let there be light, and there was light."

FIG. 9—STALAGMITE. FIG. 10.—TEREBRATULA.

The earth being chiefly covered with water, and the air partly freed from watery vapour, then commenced the great creation of organised beings. The air, although to a certain extent, free from vapour, must yet have contained an enormous amount of carbonic acid; this, being less easily condensed than any of the matters which had gone through that process, would still remain there as a gas, and the effect of this superabundance would be to saturate all the water covering the earth with it; this solution of carbonic acid, being capable of dissolving lime, would (as it percolated and rushed in currents through the rocks and inequalities of the surface) become converted into a solution of percarbonate of lime, taking up a large quantity of this earth from the broken-up granite, &c., then this carbonate of lime would be deposited at the bottom of the water in one of two ways—either from pressure, diminution of carbonic acid in the air, and heat of the surface, it crystallised at the bottom in the form of marble (that the water does thus become saturated with carbonic acid and take up lime, is constantly shown by the stalagmites which form on the floors of caverns, where the water thus loaded with percarbonate of lime, evaporating, deposits gradually the carbonate in all sorts of fantastic shapes, as in fig. 9), or the myriads of crinoidians and brachiopodous molluscs (fig. 10) which were about this time created, absorbed it into their systems and at their death deposited their shells, which are made of this earth, at the bottom of the sea; these shells, accumulating through ages into strata, became hardened and partly crystallised by heat, thus forming the limestones, which were the first containing carbonate of lime. That such a collection, from such causes, is quite possible, will be presently shown in describing the chalk formation.

Ages of comparative quiet now appear to have succeeded the first great contraction of the earth's crust, probably millions of years, during which time the tides and currents of the ocean had to wash and wear down all the thousands of projecting rocks or inequalities and dissolve (as before described) all the lime, depositing the sand and clay in those immense strata which form the "transition series;" this appears to have taken place over nearly the whole world at that time, and ages upon ages must have elapsed to form such deposits as the sandstone, claystone, and limestone, in alternation, forming the "Llandilo," "Caradoc," and "Wenlock" strata, more than a mile in thickness; these are by some geologists reckoned among the primary series (by some called the "transition rocks"), and in England form the "Cambrian" and "Silurian" systems.

FIG. 11—TRILOBITE.

In these strata the remains of organised beings are first found, consisting of zoophytes, crustacea (chiefly Trilobites, fig. 11), nautili, crinoidii (stone lilies), and a few ganoid (plate-covered) fishes; these lower forms of animal life in some parts abound in the most prodigious numbers. There must, of course, have been vegetables of some kind previously formed to constitute nourishment for these animals, but scarcely any remains of such exist, except in a few localities.