Outlines of the Earths History

Outlines of the Earth's History,
by

Nathaniel Southgate Shaler This eBook is for the use of anyone
anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You
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Title: Outlines of the Earth's History A Popular Study in Physiography
Author: Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
Release Date: June 12, 2006 [EBook #18562]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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OF THE EARTH'S HISTORY ***

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[Illustration: Dunes at Ipswich Light, Massachusetts. Note the effect of
bushes in arresting the movement of the wind-blown sand.]

OUTLINES OF THE EARTH'S HISTORY
A POPULAR STUDY IN PHYSIOGRAPHY
BY
NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER
PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEAN
OF LAWRENCE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL
ILLUSTRATED WITH INDEX
NEW YORK AND LONDON D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1898, 1910

PREFACE.
The object of this book is to provide the beginner in the study of the
earth's history with a general account of those actions which can be
readily understood and which will afford him clear understandings as to
the nature of the processes which have made this and other celestial
spheres. It has been the writer's purpose to select those series of facts
which serve to show the continuous operations of energy, so that the
reader might be helped to a truer conception of the nature of this sphere
than he can obtain from ordinary text-books.
In the usual method of presenting the elements of the earth's history the
facts are set forth in a manner which leads the student to conceive that
history as in a way completed. The natural prepossession to the effect
that the visible universe represents something done, rather than
something endlessly doing, is thus re-enforced, with the result that one
may fail to gain the largest and most educative impression which
physical science can afford him in the sense of the swift and unending
procession of events.

It is well known to all who are acquainted with the history of geology
that the static conception of the earth--the idea that its existing
condition is the finished product of forces no longer in action--led to
prejudices which have long retarded, and indeed still retard, the
progress of that science. This fact indicates that at the outset of a
student's work in this field he should be guarded against such
misconceptions. The only way to attain the end is by bringing to the
understanding of the beginner a clear idea of successions of events
which are caused by the forces operating in and on this sphere. Of all
the chapters of this great story, that which relates to the history of the
work done by the heat of the sun is the most interesting and awakening.
Therefore an effort has been made to present the great successive steps
by which the solar energy acts in the processes of the air and the
waters.
The interest of the beginner in geology is sure to be aroused when he
comes to see how very far the history of the earth has influenced the
fate of men. Therefore the aim has been, where possible, to show the
ways in which geological processes and results are related to ourselves;
how, in a word, this earth has been the well-appointed nursery of our
kind.
All those who are engaged in teaching elementary science learn the
need of limiting the story they have to tell to those truths which can be
easily understood by beginners. It is sometimes best, as in stating such
difficult matters as those concerning the tides, to give explanations
which are far from complete, and which, as to their mode of
presentation, would be open to criticism were it not for the fact that any
more elaborate statements would most likely be incomprehensible to
the novice, thus defeating the teacher's aim.
It will be observed that no account is here given of the geological ages
or of the successions of organic life. Chapters on these subjects were
prepared, but were omitted for the reason that they made the story too
long, and also because they carried the reader into a field of much
greater difficulty than that which is found in the physical history of the
earth.

N.S.S. March, 1898.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF NATURE 1 II.--WAYS
AND MEANS OF STUDYING NATURE 9 III.--THE STELLAR
REALM 31 IV.--THE EARTH 81 V.--THE ATMOSPHERE 97
VI.--GLACIERS 207 VII.--THE WORK OF UNDERGROUND
WATER 250 VIII.--THE SOIL 313 IX.--THE ROCKS AND THEIR
ORDER 349

LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
FACING PAGE
Dunes at Ipswich Light, Massachusetts Frontispiece Seal