Some of these formations, which are
represented in England by thin beds, are thousands of feet in thickness on
the Continent. Moreover, between each successive formation we have, in the
opinion of most geologists, blank periods of enormous length. So that the
lofty pile of sedimentary rocks in Britain gives but an inadequate idea of
the time which has elapsed during their accumulation. The consideration of
these various facts impresses the mind almost in the same manner as does
the vain endeavour to grapple with the idea of eternity.
Nevertheless this impression is partly false. Mr. Croll, in an interesting
paper, remarks that we do not err "in forming too great a conception of the
length of geological periods," but in estimating them by years. When
geologists look at large and complicated phenomena, and then at the figures
representing several million years, the two produce a totally different
effect on the mind, and the figures are at once pronounced too small. In
regard to subaerial denudation, Mr. Croll shows, by calculating the known
amount of sediment annually brought down by certain rivers, relatively to
their areas of drainage, that 1,000 feet of solid rock, as it became
gradually disintegrated, would thus be removed from the mean level of the
whole area in the course of six million years. This seems an astonishing
result, and some considerations lead to the suspicion that it may be too
large, but if halved or quartered it is still very surprising.
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