Читать книгу The Romance of Modern Geology. Describing in simple but exact language the making of the earth with some account of prehistoric animal life онлайн

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ssss1 Sir Archibald Geikie's Introduction to Geology.

We have no doubt that this was the order of the successive peoples occupying the site of London. It is obvious. Why is it? We see that there are, broadly, three layers or deposits. The upper layer is that which encloses the foundations and rubbish of our own era and times. Next below is that which encloses the relics of Roman occupation. At the bottom lies that which encloses the scanty traces of the early flint-folk. The uppermost deposit is necessarily the newest, for it could not be laid down until after the accumulation of those below it; and those below it must be progressively older, as they are traced deeper from the surface. By the mere fact that the layers lie one above the other we are furnished with a simple clue which enables us to determine the order of their formation. We may know nothing whatever as to how old they are, measured by years or centuries. But we can be absolutely certain that the bottom layer came first, and the top layer came last. This kind of observation will enable us to find proofs everywhere that the surface of the land has not always been what it is to-day. In some districts, for example, when the dark layer of soil in which vegetables grow is turned up, there may be found beneath it sand and gravel full of smooth, well-rounded stones. Such materials are to be seen in course of formation where water keeps them moving to and fro, as on the beds of rivers, the margins of lakes, or the shallow shores of the sea. Wherever smooth-rolled pebbles occur they point to the influence of moving water, so that we conclude, even though the site is now dry, that water once moved above it. Again, below the soil in other regions lie layers of oysters and other sea shells.