Local variations in the character of the soil covering are exceedingly numerous, and these differences of condition profoundly affect the estate of man. We shall therefore consider some of the more important of these conditions, with special reference to their origin.

The most important and distinctly marked variation in the fertility of soils is that which is produced by differences in the rainfall. No parts of the earth are entirely lacking in rain, but over considerable areas the precipitation does not exceed half a foot a year. In such realms the soil is sterile, and the natural coating of vegetation limited to those plants which can subsist on dew or which can take on an occasional growth at such times as moisture may come upon them. With a slight increase in precipitation, the soil rapidly increases in productivity, so that we may say that where as much as about ten inches of water enters the earth during the summer half of the year, it becomes in a considerable measure fit for agriculture. Observations indicate that the conditions of fertility are not satisfied where the rainfall is just sufficient to fill the pores of the soil; there must be enough water entering the earth to bring about a certain amount of outflow in the form of springs. The reason of this need becomes apparent when we study the evident features of those soils which, though from season to season charged with water, do not yield springs, but send the moisture away through the atmosphere. Wherever these conditions occur we observe that the soil in dry seasons becomes coated with a deposit of mineral matter, which, because of its taste, has received the name of alkali. The origin of this coating is as follows: The pores of the soil, charged from year to year with sufficient water to fill them, become stored with a fluid which contains a very large amount of dissolved mineral matter—too much, indeed, to permit the roots of plants, save a few species which have become accustomed to the conditions, to do their appointed work. In fact, this water is much like that of the sea, which the roots of only a few of our higher plants can tolerate. When the dry season comes on, the heat of the sun evaporates the water at the surface, leaving behind a coating composed of the substances which the water contains. The soil below acts in the manner of a lamp-wick to draw up fluid as rapidly as the heat burns it away. When the soil water is as far as possible exhausted, the alkali coating may represent a considerable part of the soluble matter of the soil, and in the next rainy season it may return in whole or in part to the under-earth, again to be drawn in the manner before described to the upper level. It is therefore only when a considerable share of the ground water goes forth to the streams in each year that the alkaline materials are in quantity kept down to the point where the roots of our crop-giving plants can make due use of the soil. Where, in an arid region, the ground can be watered from the enduring streams or from artificial reservoirs, the main advantage arising from the process is commonly found in the control which it gives the farmer in the amount of the soil water. He can add to the rainfall sufficient to take away the excess of mineral matter. When such soils are first brought under tillage it is necessary to use a large amount of water from the canals, in order to wash away the old store of alkali. After that a comparatively small contribution will often keep the soil in excellent condition for agriculture. It has been found, however, in the irrigated lands beside the Nile that where too much saving is practised in the irrigation, the alkaline coating will appear where it has been unknown before, and with it an unfitness of the earth to bear crops.

Although the crust of mineral matters formed in the manner above described is characteristic of arid countries, and in general peculiar to them, a similar deposit may under peculiar conditions be formed in regions of great rainfall. Thus on the eastern coast of New England, where the tidal marshes have here and there been diked from the sea and brought under tillage, the dissolved mineral matters of the soil, which are excessive in quantity, are drawn to the surface, forming a coating essentially like that which is so common in arid regions. The writer has observed this crust on such diked lands, having a thickness of an eighth of an inch. In fact, this alkali coating represents merely the extreme operation of a process which is going on in all soils, and which contributes much to their fertility. When rain falls and passes downward into the earth, it conveys the soluble matter to a depth below the surface, often to beyond the point where our ordinary crop plants, such as the small grains, can have access to it, and this for the reason that their roots do not penetrate deeply. When dry weather comes and evaporation takes place from the surface, the fluid is drawn up to the upper soil layer, and there, in process of evaporation, deposits the dissolved materials which it contains. Thus the mineral matter which is fit for plant food is constantly set in motion, and in its movement passes the rootlets of the plants. It is probably on this account—at least in part—that very wet weather is almost as unfavourable to the farmer as exceedingly dry, the normal alternation in the conditions being, as is well known, best suited to his needs.

So long as the earth is subjected to conditions in which the rainfall may bring about a variable amount of water in the superficial detrital layer, we find normal fruitful soils, though in their more arid conditions they may be fit for but few species of plants. When, by increasing aridity, we pass to conditions where there is no tolerably permanent store of water in the debris, the material ceases to have the qualities of a soil, and becomes mere rock waste. At the other extreme of the scale we pass to conditions where the water is steadfastly maintained in the interstices of the detritus, and there again the characteristic of the soil and its fitness for the uses of land vegetation likewise disappear. In a word, true soil conditions demand the presence of moisture, but that in insufficient quantities, to keep the pores of the earth continually filled; where they are thus filled, we have the condition of swamps. Between these extremes the level at which the water stands in the soil in average seasons is continually varying. In rainy weather it may rise quite to the surface; in a dry season it may sink far down. As this water rises and falls, it not only moves, as before noted, the soluble mineral materials, but it draws the air into and expels it from the earth with each movement. This atmospheric circulation of the soil, as has been proved by experiment, is of great importance in maintaining its fertility; the successive charges of air supply the needs of the microscopic underground creatures which play a large part in enriching the soil, and the direct effect of the oxygen in promoting decay is likewise considerable. A part of the work which is accomplished by overturning the earth in tillage consists in this introduction of the air into the pores of the soil, where it serves to advance the actions which bring mineral matters into solution.



In the original conditions of any country which is the seat of considerable rainfall, and where the river system is not so far developed as to provide channels for the ready exit of the waters, we commonly find very extensive swamps; these conditions of bad drainage almost invariably exist where a region has recently been elevated above the level of the sea, and still retains the form of an irregular rolling plain common to sea floors, and also in regions where the work done by glaciers has confused the drainage which the antecedent streams may have developed. In an old, well-elaborated river system swamps are commonly absent, or, if they occur, are due to local accidents of an unimportant nature.

For our purpose swamps may be divided into three groups—climbing bogs, lake bogs, and marine marshes. The first two of these groups depend on the movements of the rain water over the land; the third on the action of the tides. Beginning our account with the first and most exceptional of these groups, we note the following features in their interesting history:

Wherever in a humid region, on a gentle slope—say with an inclination not exceeding ten feet to the mile—the soil is possessed by any species of plants whose stems grow closely together, so that from their decayed parts a spongelike mass is produced, we have the conditions which favour the development of climbing bogs. Beginning usually in the shores of a pool, these plants, necessarily of a water-loving species, retain so much moisture in the spongy mass which they form that they gradually extend up the slope. Thus extending the margin of their field, and at the same time thickening the deposit which they form, these plants may build a climbing bog over the surface until steeps are attained where the inclination is so great that the necessary amount of water can not be held in the spongy mass, or where, even if so held, the whole coating will in time slip down in the manner of an avalanche.

The greater part of the climbing bogs of the world are limited to the moist and cool regions of high latitudes, where species of moss belonging to the genus Sphagnum plentifully flourish. These plants can only grow where they are continuously supplied with a bath of water about their roots. They develop in lake bogs as far south as Mexico, but in the climbing form they are hardly traceable south of New England, and are nowhere extensively developed within the limits of the United States. In more northern parts of this continent, and in northwestern Europe, particularly in the moist climate of Ireland, climbing bogs occupy great areas, and hold up their lakes of interstitially contained water over the slopes of hills, where the surface rises at the rate of thirty feet or more to the mile. So long as the deposit of decayed vegetable matter which has accumulated in this manner is thin, therefore everywhere penetrated by the fibrous roots of the moss, it may continue to cling to its sloping bed; but when it attains a considerable thickness, and the roots in the lower part decay, the pulpy mass, water-laden in some time of heavy rain, break away in a vast torrent of thick, black mud, which may inundate the lower lands, causing widespread destruction.

In more southern countries, other water-loving plants lead to the formation of climbing bogs. Of these, the commonest and most effective are the species of reeds, of which our Indian cane is a familiar example. Brakes of this vegetation, plentifully mingled with other species of aquatic growth, form those remarkable climbing bogs known as the Dismal and other swamps, which numerously occur along the coast line of the United States from southern Maryland to eastern Texas. Climbing bogs are particularly interesting, not only from the fact that they are eminently peculiar effects of plant growth, but because they give us a vivid picture of those ancient morasses in which grew the plants that formed the beds of vegetable matter now appearing in the state of coal. Each such bed of buried swamp material was, with rare exceptions, where the accumulation took place in lakes, gathered in climbing bogs such as we have described.

Lake bogs occur in all parts of the world, but in their best development are limited to relatively high latitudes, and this for the reason that the plants which form vegetable matter grow most luxuriantly in cool climates and in regions where the level of the basin is subject to less variation than occurs in the alternating wet and dry seasons which exist in nearly all tropical regions. The fittest conditions are found in glaciated regions, where, as before noted, small lakes are usually very abundant. On the shores of one of these pools, of size not so great that the waves may attain a considerable height, or in the sheltered bay of a larger lake, various aquatic plants, especially the species of pond lilies, take root upon the bottom, and spread their expanded leaves on the surface of the water. These flexible-leaved and elastic-stemmed plants can endure waves which attain no more than a foot or two of height, and by the friction which they afford make the swash on the shore very slight. In the quiet water, rushes take root, and still further protect the strand, so that the very delicate vegetation of the mosses, such as the Sphagnum, can fix itself on the shore.

As soon as the Sphagnum mat has begun its growth, the strength given by its interlaced fibres enables it to extend off from the shore and float upon the water. In this way it may rapidly enlarge, if not broken up by the waves, so that its front advances into the lake at the rate of several inches each year. While growing outwardly it thickens, so that the bottom of the mass gradually works down toward the floor of the basin. At the same time the lower part of the sheet, decaying, contributes a shower of soft peat mud to the floor of the lake. In this way, growing at its edge, deepening, and contributing to an upgrowth from the bottom, a few centuries may serve entirely to fill a deep basin with peaty accumulation. In general, however, the surface of the bog closes over the lake before the accumulation has completely filled the shoreward portions of the area. In these conditions we have what is familiarly known as a quaking bog, which can be swayed up and down by a person who quickly stoops and rises while standing on the surface. In this state the tough and thick sheet of growing plants is sufficient to uphold a considerable weight, but so elastic that the underlying water can be thrown into waves. Long before the bog has completely filled the lake with the peaty accumulations the growth of trees is apt to take place on its surface, which often reduces the area to the appearance of a very level wet wood.



Climbing and lake bogs in the United States occupy a total area of more than fifty thousand square miles. In all North America the total area is probably more than twice as great. Similar deposits are exceedingly common in the Eurasian continent and in southern Patagonia. It is probable that the total amount of these fields in different parts of the world exceeds half a million square miles. These two groups of fresh-water swamps have an interest, for the reason that when reduced to cultivation by drainage and by subsequent removal of the excess of peaty matter, by burning or by natural decay, afford very rich soil. The fairest fields of northern Europe, particularly in Great Britain and Ireland, have been thus won to tillage. In the first centuries of our era a large part of England—perhaps as much as one tenth of the ground now tilled in that country—was occupied by these lands, which retained water in such measure as to make them unfit for tillage, the greater portion of this area being in the condition of thin climbing bog. For many centuries much of the energy of the people was devoted to the reclamation of these valuable lands. This task of winning the swamp lands to agriculture has been more completely accomplished in England than elsewhere, but it has gone far on the continent of Europe, particularly in Germany. In the United States, owing to the fact that lands have been cheap, little of this work of swamp-draining has as yet been accomplished. It is likely that the next great field of improvement to be cultivated by the enterprising people will be found in these excessively humid lands, from which the food-giving resources for the support of many million people can be won.



The group of marine marshes differs in many important regards from those which are formed in fresh water. Where the tide visits any coast line, and in sheltered positions along that shore, a number of plants, mostly belonging to the group of grasses, species which have become accustomed to having their roots bathed by salt water, begin the formation of a spongy mat, which resembles that composed of Sphagnum, only it is much more solid. This mat of the marine marshes soon attains a thickness of a foot or more, the upper or growing surface lying in a position where it is covered for two or three hours at each visit of the tide. Growing rapidly outward from the shore, and having a strength which enables it to resist in a tolerably effective manner waves not more than two or three feet high, this accumulation makes head against the sea. To a certain extent the waves undermine the front of the sheet and break up masses of it, which they distribute over the shallow bottom below the level at which these plants can grow. In this deeper water, also, other marine animals and plants are continually developing, and their remains are added to the accumulations which are ever shallowing the water, thus permitting a further extension of the level, higher-lying marsh. This process continues until the growth has gone as far as the scouring action of the tidal currents will permit. In the end the bay, originally of wide-open water, is only such at high tide. For the greater part of the time it appears as broad savannas, whose brilliant green gives them the aspect of rare fertility.

Owing to the conditions of their growth, the deposits formed in marine marshes contain no distinct peat, the nearest approach to that substance being the tangle of wirelike roots which covers the upper foot or so of the accumulation. The greater part of the mass is composed of fine silt, brought in by the streams of land water which discharge into the basin, and by the remains of animals which dwelt upon the bottom or between the stalks of the plants that occupy the surface of the marshes. These interspaces afford admirable shelter to a host of small marine forms. The result is, that the tidal marshes, as well as the lower-lying mud flats, which have been occupied by the mat of vegetation, afford admirable earth for tillage. Unfortunately, however, there are two disadvantages connected with the redemption of such lands. In the first place, it is necessary to exclude the sea from the area, which can only be accomplished by considerable engineering work; in the second place, the exclusion of the tide inevitably results in the silting up of the passage by which the water found its way to the sea. As these openings are often used for harbours, the effect arising from their destruction is often rather serious. Nevertheless, in some parts of the world very extensive and most fertile tracts of land have thus been won from the sea; a large part of Holland and shore-land districts in northern Europe are made up of fields which were originally covered by the tide. Near the mouth of the Rhine, indeed, the people have found these sea-bottom soils so profitable that they have gone beyond the zone of the marshes, and have drained considerable seas which of old were permanently covered, even at the lowest level of the waters.

On the coast of North America marine marshes have an extensive development, and vary much in character. In the Bay of Fundy, where the tides have an altitude of fifty feet or more, the energy of their currents is such that the marsh mat rarely forms. Its place, however, is taken by vast and ever-changing mud flats, the materials of which are swept to and fro by the moving waters. The people of this region have learned an art of a peculiar nature, by which they win broad fields of excellent land from the sea. Selecting an area of the flats, the surface of which has been brought to within a few feet of high tide, they inclose it with a stout barrier or dike, which has openings for the free admission of the tidal waters. Entering this basin, the tide, moving with considerable velocity, bears in quantities of sediment. In the basin, the motion being arrested, this sediment falls to the bottom, and serves to raise its level. In a few months the sheet of sediment is brought near the plane of the tidal movement, then the gates are closed at times when the tide has attained half of its height, so that the ground within the dike is not visited by the sea water, and can be cultivated.



Along the coast of New England the ordinary marine marshes attain an extensive development in the form of broad-grassed savannas. With this aspect, though with a considerable change in the plants which they bear, the fringe of savannas continues southward along the coast to northern Florida. In the region about the mouth of the Savannah River, so named from the vast extent of the tidal marshes, these fields attain their greatest development. In central and southern Florida, however, where the seacoast is admirably suited for their development, these coastal marshes of the grassy type disappear, their place being taken by the peculiar morasses formed by the growth of the mangrove tree.

In the mangrove marshes the tree which gives the areas their name covers all the field which is visited by the tide. This tree grows with its crown supported on stiltlike roots, at a level above high tide. From its horizontal branches there grow off roots, which reach downward into the water, and thence to the bottom. The seeds of the mangrove are admirably devised so as to enable the plant to obtain a foothold on the mud flats, even where they are covered at low tide with a depth of two or three feet of water. They are several inches in length, and arranged with booklets at their lower ends; floating near the bottom, they thus catch upon it, and in a few weeks' growth push the shoot to the level of the water, thus affording a foundation for a new plantation. In this manner, extending the old forests out into the shallow water of the bays, and forming new colonies wherever the water is not too deep, these plants rapidly occupy all the region which elsewhere would appear in the form of savannas.



The tidal marshes of North America, which may be in time converted to the uses of man, probably occupy an area exceeding twenty thousand square miles. If the work of reclaiming such lands from the sea ever attains the advance in this country that it has done in Holland, the area added to the dry land by engineering devices may amount to as much as fifty thousand square miles—a territory rather greater than the surface of Kentucky, and with a food-yielding power at least five times as great as is afforded by that fertile State. In fact, these conquests from the sea are hereafter to be among the great works which will attract the energies of mankind. In the arid region of the Cordilleras, as well as in many other countries, the soil, though destitute of those qualities which make it fit for the uses of man, because of the absence of water in sufficient amount, is, as regards its structure and depth, as well as its mineral contents, admirably suited to the needs of agriculture. The development of soils in desert regions is in almost all cases to be accounted for by the former existence in the realms they occupy of a much greater rainfall than now exists. Thus in the Rocky Mountain country, when the deep soils of the ample valleys were formed, the lakes, as we have before noted, were no longer dead seas, as is at present so generally the case, but poured forth great streams to the sea. Here, as elsewhere, we find evidence that certain portions of the earth which recently had an abundant rainfall have now become starved for the lack of that supply. All the soils of arid regions where the trial has been made have proved very fertile when subjected to irrigation, which can often be accomplished by storing the waters of the brief rainy season or by diverting those of rivers which enter the deserts from well-watered mountain fields. In fact, the soil of these arid realms yields peculiarly ample returns to the husbandman, because of certain conditions due to the exceeding dryness of the air. This leads to an absence of cloudy weather, so that from the time the seed is planted the growth is stimulated by uninterrupted and intense sunshine. The same dryness of the air leads, as we have seen, to a rapid evaporation from the surface, by which, in a manner before noted, the dissolved mineral matter is brought near the top of the soil, where it can best serve the greater part of our crop plants. On these accounts an acre of irrigated soil can be made to yield a far greater return than can be obtained from land of like chemical composition in humid regions.

In many parts of the world, particularly in the northern and western portions of the Mississippi Valley, there are widespread areas, which, though moderately well watered, were in their virgin state almost without forests. In the prairie region the early settlers found the country unwooded, except along the margins of the streams. On the borders of the true prairies, however, they found considerable areas of a prevailingly forested land, with here and there a tract of prairie. There were several of these open fields south of the Ohio, though the country there is in general forested; one of these prairie areas, in the Green River district of Kentucky, was several thousand square miles in extent. At first it was supposed that the absence of trees in the open country of the Mississippi Valley was due to some peculiarity of the soil, but experience shows that plantations luxuriantly develop, and that the timber will spread rapidly in the natural way. In fact, if the seeds of the trees which have been planted since the settlement of the country were allowed to develop as they seek to do, it would only be a few centuries before the region would be forest-clad as far west as the rainfall would permit the plants to develop. Probably the woods would attain to near the hundredth meridian.

In the opinion of the writer, the treeless character of the Western plains is mainly to be accounted for by the habit which our Indians had of burning the herbage of a lowly sort each year, so that the large game might obtain better pasturage. It is a well-known fact to all those who have had to deal with cattle on fields which are in the natural state that fire betters the pasturage. Beginning this method of burning in the arid regions to the west of the original forests, the natural action of the fire has been gradually to destroy these woods. Although the older and larger trees, on account of their thick bark and the height of their foliage above the ground, escaped destruction, all the smaller and younger members of the species were constantly swept away. Thus when the old trees died they left no succession, and the country assumed its prairie character. That the prairies were formed in this manner seems to be proved by the testimony which we have concerning the open area before mentioned as having existed in western Kentucky. It is said that around the timberless fields there was a wide fringe of old fire-scarred trees, with no undergrowth beneath their branches, and that as they died no kind of large vegetation took their place. When the Indians who set these fires were driven away, as was the case in the last decade of the last century, the country at once began to resume its timbered condition. From the margin and from every interior point where the trees survived, their seeds spread so that before the open land was all subjugated to the plough it was necessary in many places to clear away a thick growth of the young forest-building trees.

The soils which develop on the lavas and ashes about an active volcano afford interesting subjects for study, for the reason that they show how far the development of the layer which supports vegetation may depend upon the character of the rocks from which it is derived. Where the materials ejected from a volcano lie in a rainy district, the process of decay which converts the rock into soil is commonly very rapid, a few years of exposure to the weather being sufficient to bring about the formation of a fertile soil. This is due to the fact that most lavas, as well as the so-called volcanic ashes, which are of the same material as the lavas, only blown to pieces, are composed of varied minerals, the most of which are readily attacked by the agents of decay. Now and then, however, we find the materials ejected from a particular volcano, or even the lavas and ashes of a single eruption, in such a chemical state that soils form upon them with exceeding slowness.

* * * * *

The foregoing incomplete considerations make it plain that the soil-covering of the earth is the result of very delicate adjustments, which determine the rate at which the broken-down rocks find their path from their original bed places to the sea. The admirable way in which this movement is controlled is indicated by the fact that almost everywhere we find a soil-covering deep enough for the use of a varied vegetation, but rarely averaging more than a dozen feet in depth. Only here and there are the rocks bare or the earth swathed in a profound mass of detritus. This indicates how steadfast and measured is the march of the rock waste from the hills to the sea. Unhappily, man, when by his needs he is forced to till the soil, is compelled to break up this ancient and perfect order. He has to strip the living mantle from the earth, replacing it with growth of those species which serve his needs. Those plants which are most serviceable—which are, indeed, indispensable in the higher civilization, the grains—require for their cultivation that the earth be stripped bare and deeply stirred during the rainy season, and thus subjected to the most destructive effect of the rainfall. The result is, that in almost all grain fields the rate of soil destruction vastly surpasses that at which the accumulation is being made. We may say, indeed, that, except in alluvial plains, where the soil grows by flood-made additions to its upper surface, no field tilled in grain can without exceeding care remain usable for a century. Even though the agriculturist returns to the earth all the chemical substances which he takes away in his crops, the loss of the soil by the washing away of its substance to the stream will inevitably reduce the region to sterility.

It is not fanciful to say that the greatest misfortune which in a large way man has had to meet in his agriculture arises from this peculiar stress which grain crops put upon the soil. If these grains grew upon perennial plants, in the manner of our larger fruits, the problem of man's relation to the soil would be much simpler than it is at present. He might then manage to till the earth without bringing upon it the inevitable destruction which he now inflicts. As it is, he should recognise that his needs imperil this ancient and precious element in the earth's structure, and he should endeavour in every possible way to minimize the damage which he brings about. This result he may accomplish in certain simple ways.

First, as regards the fertility of the soil, as distinguished from the thickness of the coating, it may be said that modern discoveries enable us to see the ways whereby we may for an indefinite period avoid the debasement of our great heritage, the food-giving earth. We now know in various parts of the world extensive and practically inexhaustible deposits, whence may be obtained the phosphates, potash, soda, etc., which we take from the soil in our crops. We also have learned ways in which the materials contained in our sewage may be kept from the sea and restored to the fields. In fact, the recent developments of agriculture have made it not only easy, but in most cases profitable, to avoid this waste of materials which has reduced so many regions to poverty. We may fairly look forward to the time, not long distant, when the old progressive degradation in the fertility of the soil coating will no longer occur. It is otherwise with the mass of the soil, that body of commingled decayed rock and vegetable matter which must possess a certain thickness in order to serve its needs. As yet no considerable arrest has been made in the processes which lead to the destruction of this earthy mass. In all countries where tillage is general the rivers are flowing charged with all they can bear away of soil material. Thus in the valley of the Po, a region where, if the soil were forest-clad, the down-wearing of the surface would probably be at no greater rate than one foot in five thousand years, the river bears away the soil detritus so rapidly that at the present time the downgoing is at the rate of one foot in eight hundred years, and each decade sees the soil disappear from hillsides which were once fertile, but are now reduced to bare rocks. All about the Mediterranean the traveller notes extensive regions which were once covered with luxuriant forests, and were afterward the seats of prosperous agriculture, where the soil has utterly disappeared, leaving only the bare rocks, which could not recover its natural covering in thousands of years of the enforced fallow.

Within the limits of the United States the degradation of the soil, owing to the peculiar conditions of the country, is in many districts going forward with startling rapidity. It has been the habit of our people—a habit favoured by the wide extent of fertile and easily acquired frontier ground—recklessly to till their farms until the fields were exhausted, and then to abandon them for new ground. By shallow ploughing on steep hillsides, by neglect in the beginning of those gulches which form in such places, it is easy in the hill country of the eastern United States to have the soil washed away within twenty years after the protecting forests have been destroyed. The writer has estimated that in the States south of the Ohio and James Rivers more than eight thousand square miles of originally fertile ground have by neglect been brought into a condition where it will no longer bear crops of any kind, and over fifteen hundred miles of the area have been so worn down to the subsoil or the bed rock that it may never be profitable to win it again to agricultural uses.

Hitherto, in our American agriculture, our people have been to a great extent pioneers; they have been compelled to win what they could in the cheapest possible way and with the rudest implements, and without much regard to the future of those who were in subsequent generations to occupy the fields which they were conquering from the wilderness and the savages. The danger is now that this reckless tillage, in a way justified of old, may be continued and become habitual with our people. It is, indeed, already a fixed habit in many parts of the country, particularly in the South, where a small farmer expects to wear out two or three plantations in the course of his natural life. Many of them manage to ruin from one to two hundred acres of land in the course of half a century of uninterrupted labour. This system deserves the reprobation of all good citizens; it would be well, indeed, if it were possible to do so, to stamp it out by the law. The same principle which makes it illegal for a man to burn his own dwelling house may fairly be applied in restraining him from destroying the land which he tills.

There are a few simple principles which, if properly applied, may serve to correct this misuse of our American soil. The careful tiller should note that all soils whatever which lie on declivities having a slope of more than one foot in thirty inevitably and rapidly waste when subject to plough tillage. This instrument tends to smear and consolidate the layer of earth over which its heel runs, so that at a depth of a few inches below the surface a layer tolerably impervious to water is formed. The result is that the porous portion of the deposit becomes excessively charged with water in times of heavy rain, and moves down the hillside in a rapid manner. All such steep slopes should be left in their wooded state, or, if brought into use, should be retained as pasture lands.

Where, as is often the case with the farms in hilly countries, all the fields are steeply inclined, it is an excellent precaution to leave the upper part of the slope with a forest covering. In this condition not only is the excessive flow of surface water diminished, but the moisture which creeps down the slope from the wooded area tends to keep the lower-lying fields in a better state for tillage, and promotes the decay of the underlying rocks, and thus adds to the body and richness of the earth.

On those soils which must be tilled, even where they tend to wash away, the aim should be to keep the detritus open to such a depth that it may take in as much as possible of the rainfall, yielding the water to the streams through the springs. This end can generally be accomplished by deep ploughing; it can, in almost all cases, be attained by under-drainage. The effect of allowing the water to penetrate is not only to diminish the superficial wearing, but to maintain the process of subsoil and bed-rock decay by which the detrital covering is naturally renewed. Where, as in many parts of the country, the washing away of the soil can not otherwise be arrested, the progress of the destruction can be delayed by forming with the skilful use of the plough ditches of slight declivity leading along the hillsides to the natural waterways. One of the most satisfactory marks of the improvement which is now taking place in the agriculture of the cotton-yielding States of this country is to be found in the rapid increase in the use of the ditch system here mentioned. This system, combined with ploughing in the manner where the earth is with each overturning thrown uphill, will greatly reduce the destructive effect of rainfall on steep-lying fields. But the only effective protection, however, is accomplished by carefully terracing the slopes, so that the tilled ground lies in level benches. This system is extensively followed in the thickly settled portions of Europe, but it may be a century before it will be much used in this country.

The duty of the soil-tiller by the earth with which he deals may be briefly summed up: He should look upon himself as an agent necessarily interfering with the operations which naturally form and preserve the soil. He should see that his work brings two risks; he may impoverish the accumulation of detrital material by taking out the plant food more rapidly than it is prepared for use. This injurious result may be at any time reparable by a proper use of manures. Not so, however, with the other form of destruction, which results in the actual removal of the soil materials. Where neglect has brought about this disaster, it can only be repaired by leaving the area to recover beneath the slowly formed forest coating. This process in almost all cases requires many thousands of years for its accomplishment. The man who has wrought such destruction has harmed the inheritance of life.



CHAPTER IX.

THE ROCKS AND THEIR ORDER.

In the preceding chapters of this book the attention of the student has been directed mainly to the operations of those natural forces which act upon the surface of the earth. Incidentally the consequences arising from the applications of energy to the outer part of the planet have been attended to, but the main aim has been to set forth the work which solar energy, operating in the form of heat, accomplishes upon the lands. We have now to consider one of the great results of these actions, which is exhibited in the successive strata that make up the earth's crust.

The most noteworthy effect arising from the action of the solar forces on the earth and their co-operation with those which originate in our sphere is found in the destruction of beds or other deposits of rock, and the removal of the materials to the floors of water basins, where they are again aggregated in strata, and gradually brought once more into a stable condition within the earth. This work is accomplished by water in its various states, the action being directly affected by gravitation. In the form of steam, water which has been built into rocks and volcanically expelled by tensions, due to the heat which it has acquired at great depths below the surface, blows forth great quantities of lava, which is contributed to the formation of strata, either directly in the solid form or indirectly, after having been dissolved in the sea. Acting as waves, water impelled by solar energy transmitted to it by the winds beats against the shores, wearing away great quantities of rock, which is dragged off to the neighbouring sea bottoms, there to resume the bedded form. Moving ice in glaciers, water again applying solar energy given to it by its elevation above the sea, most effectively grinds away the elevated parts of the crust, the debris being delivered to the ocean. In the rain the same work is done, and even in the wind the power of the sun serves to abrade the high-lying rocks, making new strata of their fragments.

As gravity enters as an element in all the movements of divided rock, the tendency of the waste worn from the land is to gather on to the bottoms of basins which contain water. Rarely, and only in a small way, this process results in the accumulation of lake deposits; the greater part of the work is done upon the sea floor. When the beds are formed in lake basins, they may be accumulated in either of two very diverse conditions. They may be formed in what are called dead seas, in which case the detrital materials are commonly small in amount, for the reason that the inflowing streams are inconsiderable; in such basins there is normally a large share of saline materials, which are laid down by the evaporation of the water. In ordinary lakes the deposits which are formed are mostly due to the sediment that the rivers import. These materials are usually fine-grained, and the sand or pebbles which they contain are plentifully mingled with clay. Hence lake deposits are usually of an argillaceous nature. As organic life, such as secretes limestone, is rarely developed to any extent in lake basins, limy beds are very rarely formed beneath those areas of water. Where they occur, they are generally due to the fact that rivers charged with limy matter import such quantities of the substance that it is precipitated on the bottom.

As lake deposits are normally formed in basins above the level of the sea, and as the drainage channels of the basins are always cutting down, the effect is to leave such strata at a considerable height above the sea level, where the erosive agents may readily attack them. In consequence of this condition, lacustrine beds are rarely found of great antiquity; they generally disappear soon after they are formed. Where preserved, their endurance is generally to be attributed to the fact that the region they occupy has been lowered beneath the sea and covered by marine strata.

The great laboratory in which the sedimentary deposits are accumulated, the realm in which at least ninety-nine of the hundred parts of these materials are laid down, is the oceanic part of the earth. On the floors of the seas and oceans we have not only the region where the greater part of the sedimentation is effected, but that in which the work assumes the greatest variety. The sea bottoms, as regards the deposits formed upon them, are naturally divided into two regions—the one in which the debris from the land forms an important part of the sediment, and the other, where the remoteness of the shores deprives the sediment of land waste, or at least of enough of that material in any such share as can affect the character of the deposits.

What we may term the littoral or shore zone of the sea occupies a belt of prevailingly shallow water, varying in width from a few score to a few hundred miles. Where the bottom descends steeply from the coast, where there are no strong off-shore setting currents, and where the region is not near the mouth of a large river which bears a great tide of sediment to the sea, the land waste may not affect the bottom for more than a mile or two from the shore. Where these conditions are reversed, the debris from the air-covered region may be found three or four hundred miles from the coast line. It should also be noted that the incessant up-and-down goings of the land result in a constant change in the position of the coast line, and consequently in the extension of the land sediment, in the course of a few geological periods over a far wider field of sea bottom than that to which they would attain if the shores remained steadfast.

It is characteristic of the sediments deposited within the influence of the continental detritus that they vary very much in their action, and that this variation takes place not only horizontally along the shores in the same stratum, but vertically, in the succession of the beds. It also may be traced down the slope from the coast line to deep water. Thus where all the debris comes from the action of the waves, the deposits formed from the shore outwardly will consist of coarse materials, such as pebbles near the coast, of sand in the deeper and remoter section, and of finer silt in the part of the deposit which is farthest out. With each change in the level of the coast line the position of these belts will necessarily be altered. Where a great river enters the sea, the changes in the volume of sediment which it from time to time sends forth, together with the alternations in the position of its point of discharge, led to great local complexities in the strata. Moreover, the turbid water sent forth by the stream may, as in the case of the tide from the Amazon, be drifted for hundreds of miles along the coast line or into the open sea.

The most important variations which occur in the deposits of the littoral zone are brought about by the formations of rocks more or less composed of limestone. Everywhere the sea is, as compared with lake waters, remarkably rich in organic life. Next the shore, partly because the water is there shallow, but also because of its relative warmth and the extent to which it is in motion, organic life, both that of animals and plants, commonly develops in a very luxuriant way. Only where the bottom is composed of drifting sands, which do not afford a foothold for those species which need to rest upon the shore, do we fail to find that surface thickly tenanted with varied forms. These are arranged according to the depth of the bottom. The species of marine plants which are attached to fixed objects are limited to the depth within which the sunlight effectively penetrates the water; in general, it may be said that they do not extend below a depth of one hundred feet. The animal forms are distributed, according to their kinds, over the floor, but few species having the capacity to endure any great range in the pressure of the sea water. Only a few forms, indeed, extend from low tide to the depth of a thousand feet.

The greatest development of organic life, the realm in which the largest number of species occur, and where their growth is most rapid, lies within about a hundred feet of the low-tide level. Here sunlight, warmth, and motion in the water combine to favour organic development. It is in this region that coral reefs and other great accumulations of limestone, formed from the skeletons of polyps and mollusks, most abundantly occur. These deposits of a limy nature depend upon a very delicate adjustment of the conditions which favour the growth of certain creatures; very slight geographic changes, by inducing movements of sand or mud, are apt to interrupt their formation, bringing about a great and immediate alteration in the character of the deposits. Thus it is that where geologists find considerable fields of rock, where limestones are intercalated with sandstones and deposits of clay, they are justified in assuming that the strata were laid down near some ancient shore. In general, these coast deposits become more and more limy as we go toward the tropical realms, and this for the reason that the species which secrete large amounts of lime are in those regions most abundant and attain the most rapid growth. The stony polyps, the most vigorous of the limestone makers, grow in large quantities only in the tropical realm, or near to it, where ocean streams of great warmth may provide the creatures with the conditions of temperature and food which they need.

As we pass from the shore to the deeper sea, the share of land detritus rapidly diminishes until, as before remarked, at the distance of five hundred miles from the coast line, very little of that waste, except that from volcanoes, attains the bottom of the sea. By far the larger part of the contributions which go to the formation of these deep-sea strata come from organic remains, which are continually falling upon the sea floor. In part, this waste is derived from creatures which dwell upon the bottom; in considerable measure, however, it is from the dead bodies of those forms which live near the surface of the sea, and which when dying sink slowly through the intermediate realm to the bottom.

Owing to the absence of sunlight, the prevailingly cold water of the deeper seas, and the lack of vegetation in those realms, the growth of organic forms on the deep-sea floor is relatively slow. Thus it happens that each shell or other contribution to the sediment lies for some time on the bottom before it is buried. While in this condition it is apt to be devoured by some of the many species which dwell on the bottom and subsist from the remains of animals and plants which they find there. In all cases the fossilization of any form depends upon the accumulation of sediment before the processes of destruction have overtaken them, and among these processes we must give the first place to the creatures which subsist on shells, bones, or other substances of like nature which find their way to the ocean floor. In the absolute darkness, the still water, and the exceeding cold of the deeper seas, animals find difficult conditions for development. Moreover, in this deep realm there is no native vegetation, and, in general, but little material of this nature descends to the bottom from the surface of the sea. The result is, the animals have to subsist on the remains of other animals which at some step in the succession have obtained their provender from the plants which belong on the surface or in the shallow waters of the sea. This limitation of the food supply causes the depths of the sea to be a realm of continual hunger, a region where every particle of organic matter is apt to be seized upon by some needy creature.

In consequence of the fact that little organic matter on the deeper sea floors escapes being devoured, the most of the material of this nature which goes into strata enters that state in a finely divided condition. In the group of worms alone—forms which in a great diversity of species inhabit the sea floor—we find creatures which are specially adapted to digesting the debris which gathers on the sea bottom. Wandering over this surface, much in the manner of our ordinary earthworms, these creatures devour the mud, voiding the matter from their bodies in a yet more perfectly divided form. Hence it comes about that the limestone beds, so commonly formed beneath the open seas, are generally composed of materials which show but few and very imperfect fossils. Studying any series of limestone beds, we commonly find that each layer, in greater or less degree, is made up of rather massive materials, which evidently came to their place in the form of a limy mud. Very often this lime has crystallized, and thus has lost all trace of its original organic structure.

One of the conspicuous features which may be observed in any succession of limestone beds is the partings or divisions into layers which occur with varied frequency. Sometimes at vertical intervals of not more than one or two inches, again with spacings of a score of feet, we find divisional planes, which indicate a sudden change in the process of rock formation. The lime disappears, and in place of it we have a thin layer of very fine detritus, which takes on the form of a clay. Examining these partings with care, we observe that on the upper surface on the limestone the remains of the animal which dwelt on the ancient sea floor are remarkably well preserved, they having evidently escaped the effect of the process which reduced their ancestors, whose remains constitute the layer, to mud. Furthermore, we note that the shaly layer is not only lacking in lime, but commonly contains no trace of animals such as might have dwelt on the bottom. The fossils it bears are usually of species which swam in the overlying water and came to the bottom after death. Following up through the layer of shale, we note that the ordinary bottom life gradually reappears, and shortly becomes so plentiful that the deposit resumes the character which it had before the interruption began. Often, however, we note that the assemblage of species which dwelt on the given area of sea floor has undergone a considerable change. Forms in existence in the lower layer may be lacking in the upper, their place being taken by new varieties.

So far the origin of these divisional planes in marine deposits has received little attention from geologists; they have, indeed, assumed that each of these alterations indicates some sudden disturbance of the life of the sea floors. They have, however, generally assumed that the change was due to alterations in the depth of the sea or in the run of ocean currents. It seems to the writer, however, that while these divisions may in certain cases be due to the above-mentioned and, indeed, to a great variety of causes, they are in general best to be explained by the action of earthquakes. Water being an exceedingly elastic substance, an earthquake passes through it with much greater speed than it traverses the rocks which support the ocean floor. The result is that, when the fluid and solid oscillate in the repeated swingings which a shock causes, they do not move together, but rub over each other, the independent movements having the swing of from a few inches to a foot or two in shocks of considerable energy.

When the sea bottom and the overlying water, vibrating under the impulse of an earthquake shock, move past each other, the inevitable result is the formation of muddy water; the very fine silt of the bottom is shaken up into the fluid, which afterward descends as a sheet to its original position. It is a well-known fact that such muddying of water, in which species accustomed to other conditions dwell, inevitably leads to their death by covering their breathing organs and otherwise disturbing the delicately balanced conditions which enable them to exist. We find, in fact, that most of the tenants of the water, particularly the forms which dwell upon the bottom, are provided with an array of contrivances which enable them to clear away from their bodies such small quantities of silt as may inconvenience them. Thus, in the case of our common clam, the breathing organs are covered with vibratory cilia, which, acting like brooms, sweep off any foreign matter which may come upon their surfaces. Moreover, the creature has a long, double, spoutlike organ, which it can elevate some distance above the bottom, through which it draws and discharges the water from which it obtains food and air. Other forms, such as the crinoids, or sea lilies, elevate the breathing parts on top of tall stems of marvellous construction, which brings those vital organs at the level, it may be, of three or four feet above the zone of mud. In consequence of the peculiar method of growth, the crinoids often escape the damage done by the disturbance of the bottom, and thus form limestone beds of remarkable thickness; sometimes, indeed, we find these layers composed mainly of crinoidal remains, which exhibit only slight traces of partings such as we have described, being essentially united for the depth of ten or twenty feet. Where the layers have been mainly accumulated by shellfish, their average thickness is less than half a foot.

When we examine the partitions between the layers of limestone, we commonly find that, however thin, they generally extend for an indefinite distance in every direction. The writer has traced some of these for miles; never, indeed, has he been able to find where they disappeared. This fact makes it clear that the destruction which took place at the stage where these partings were formed was widespread; so far as it was due to earthquake shocks, we may fairly believe that in many cases it occurred over areas which were to be measured by tens of thousands of square miles. Indeed, from what we know of earthquake shocks, it seems likely that the devastation may at times have affected millions of square miles.

Another class of accidents connected with earthquakes may also suddenly disturb the mud on the sea bottom. When, as elsewhere noted, a shock originates beneath the sea, the effect is suddenly to elevate the water over the seat of the jarring and the regions thereabouts to the height of some feet. This elevation quickly takes the shape of a ringlike wave, which rolls off in every direction from its point of origin. Where the sea is deep, the effect of this wave on the bottom may be but slight; but as the undulation attains shallower water, and in proportion to the shoaling, the front of the surge is retarded in its advance by the friction of the bottom, while the rear part, being in deeper water, crowds upon the advancing line. The action is precisely that which has been described as occurring in wind-made waves as they approach the beach; but in this last-named group of undulations, because of the great width of the swell, the effect of the shallowing is evident in much deeper water. It is likely that at the depth of a thousand feet the passing of one of these vast surges born of earthquakes may so stir the mud of the sea floor as to bring about a widespread destruction of life, and thus give rise to many of the partitions between strata.

If we examine with the microscope the fine-grained silts which make up the shaly layers between limestones, we find the materials to be mostly of inorganic origin. It is hard to trace the origin of the mineral matter which it contains; some of the fragments are likely to prove of Volcanic origin; others, bits of dust from meteorites; yet others, dust blown from the land, which may, as we know, be conveyed for any distance across the seas. Mingled with this sediment of an inorganic origin we almost invariably find a share of organic waste, derived not from creatures which dwelt upon the bottom, but from those which inhabited the higher-lying waters. If, now, we take a portion of the limestone layer which lies above or below the shale parting, and carefully dissolve out with acids the limy matter which it contains, we obtain a residuum which in general character, except so far as the particles may have been affected by the acid, is exactly like the material which forms the claylike partition. We are thus readily led to the conclusion that on the floors of the deeper seas there is constantly descending, in the form of a very slow shower, a mass of mineral detritus. Where organic life belonging to the species which secrete hard shells or skeletons is absent, this accumulation, proceeding with exceeding slowness, gradually accumulates layers, which take on a shaly character. Where limestone-making animals abound, they so increase the rate of deposition that the proportion of the mineral material in the growing strata is very much reduced; it may, indeed, become as small as one per cent of the mass. In this case we may say that the deposit of limestone grew a hundred times as fast as the intervening beds of shale.

The foregoing considerations make it tolerably clear that the sea floor is in receipt of two diverse classes of sediment—those of a mineral and those of an organic origin. The mineral, or inorganic, materials predominate along the shores. They gradually diminish in quantity toward the open sea, where the supply is mainly dependent on the substances thrown forth from volcanoes, on pumice in its massive or its comminuted form—i.e., volcanic dust, states of lava in which the material, because of the vesicles which it contains, can float for ages before it comes to rest on the sea bottom. Variations in the volcanic waste contributed to the sea floor may somewhat affect the quantity of the inorganic sediments, but, as a whole, the downfalling of these fragments is probably at a singularly uniform rate. It is otherwise with the contributions of sediment arising from organic forms. This varies in a surprising measure. On the coral reefs, such as form in the mid oceans, the proportion of matter which has not come into the accumulation through the bodies of animals and plants may be as small as one tenth of one per cent, or less. In the deeper seas, it is doubtful whether the rate of animal growth is such as to permit the formation of any beds which have less than one half of their mass made up of materials which fell through the water.

In certain areas of the open seas the upper part of the water is dwelt in by a host of creatures, mostly foraminifera, which extract limestone from the water, and, on dying, send their shells to the bottom. Thus in the North Atlantic, even where the sea floor is of great depth beneath the surface, there is constantly accumulating a mass of limy matter, which is forming very massive limestone strata, somewhat resembling chalk deposits, such as abundantly occur in Great Britain, in the neighbouring parts of Europe, in Texas, and elsewhere. Accumulations such as this, where the supply is derived from the surface of the water, are not affected by the accidents which divide beds made on the bottom in the manner before described. They may, therefore, have the singularly continuous character which we note in the English chalk, where, for the thickness of hundreds of feet, we may have no evident partitions, except certain divisions, which have evidently originated long after the beds were formed.

We have already noted the fact that, while the floors of the deeper seas appear to lack mountainous elevations, those arising from the folding of strata, they are plentifully scattered over with volcanic cones. We may therefore suppose that, in general, the deposits formed on the sea floor are to a great extent affected by the materials which these vents cast forth. Lava streams and showers represent only a part of the contributions from volcanoes, which finally find their way to the bottom. In larger part, the materials thrown forth are probably first dissolved in the water and then taken up by the organic species; only after the death of these creatures does the waste go to the bottom. As hosts of these creatures have no solid skeleton to contribute to the sea floor, such mineral matter as they may obtain is after their death at once restored to the sea.

Not only does the contribution of organic sediment diminish in quantity with the depth which is attained, but the deeper parts of the ocean bed appear to be in a condition where no accumulations of this nature are made, and this for the reason that the water dissolves the organic matter more rapidly than it is laid down. Thus in place of limestone, which would otherwise form, we have only a claylike residuum, such as is obtained when we dissolve lime rocks in acids. This process of solution, by which the limy matter deposited on the bottom is taken back into the water, goes on everywhere, but at a rate which increases with the depth. This increase is due in part to the augmentation of pressure, and in part to the larger share of carbonic dioxide which the water at great depths holds. The result is, that explorations with the dredge seem to indicate that on certain parts of the deeper sea floors the rocks are undergoing a process of dissolution comparable to that which takes place in limestone caverns. So considerable is the solvent work that a large part of the inorganic waste appears to be taken up by the waters, so as to leave the bottom essentially without sedimentary accumulations. The sea, in a word, appears to be eating into rocks which it laid down before the depression attained its present great depth.

We should here note something of the conditions which determine the supply of food which the marine animals obtain. First of all, we may recur to the point that the ocean waters appear to contain something of all the earth materials which do not readily decompose when they are taken into the state of solution. These mineral substances, including the metals, are obtained in part from the lands, through the action of the rain water and the waves, but perhaps in larger share from the volcanic matter which, in the form of floating lava, pumice, or dust, is plentifully delivered to the sea. Except doubtfully, and at most in a very small way, this chemical store of the sea water can not be directly taken into the structures of animals; it can only be immediately appropriated by the marine plants. These forms can only develop in that superficial realm of the seas which is penetrated by the sunlight, or say within the depth of five hundred feet, mostly within one hundred feet of the surface, about one thirtieth of the average, and about one fiftieth of the maximum ocean depth. On this marine plant life, and in a small measure on the vegetable matter derived from the land, the marine animals primarily depend for their provender. Through the conditions which bring about the formation of Sargassum seas, those areas of the ocean where seaweeds grow afloat, as well as by the water-logging and weighting down of other vegetable matter, some part of the plant remains is carried to the sea floor, even to great depths; but the main dependence of the deep-sea forms of animals is upon other animal forms, which themselves may have obtained their store from yet others. In fact, in any deep-sea form we might find it necessary to trace back the food by thousands of steps before we found the creature which had access to the vegetable matter. It is easy to see how such conditions profoundly limit the development of organic being in the abysm of the ocean.

The sedentary animals, or those which are fixed to the sea bottom—a group which includes the larger part of the marine species—have to depend for their sustenance on the movement of the water which passes their station. If the seas were perfectly still, none of these creatures except the most minute could be fed; therefore the currents of the ocean go far by their speed to determine the rate at which life may flourish. At great depths, as we have seen, these movements are practically limited to that which is caused by the slow movement which the tide brings about. The amount of this motion is proportional to the depth of the sea; in the deeper parts, it carries the water to and fro twice each day for the distance of about two hundred and fifty feet. In the shallower water this motion increases in proportion to the shoaling, and in the regions near the shores the currents of the sea which, except the massive drift from the poles, do not usually touch the bottom, begin to have their influence. Where the water is less than a hundred feet in depth, each wave contributes to the movement, which attains its maximum near the shore, where every surge sweeps the water rapidly to and fro. It is in this surge belt, where the waves are broken, that marine animals are best provided with food, and it is here that their growth is most rapid. If the student will obtain a pint of water from the surf, he will find that it is clouded by fragments of organic matter, the quantity in a pound of the fluid often amounting to the fiftieth part of its weight. He will thus perceive that along the shore line, though the provision of victuals is most abundant, the store is made from the animals and plants which are ground up in the mill. In a word, while the coast is a place of rapid growth, it is also a region of rapid destruction; only in the case of the coral animals, which associate their bodies with a number of myriads in large and elaborately organized communities, do we find animals which can make such head against the action of the waves that they can build great deposits in their realm.

It should be noted that a part of the advantage which is afforded to organic life by the shore belt is due to the fact that the waters are there subjected to a constant process of aeration by the whipping into foam and spray which occurs where the waves overturn.

It will be interesting to the student to note the great number of mechanical contrivances which have been devised to give security to animals and plants which face these difficult conditions arising from successive violent blows of falling water. Among these may be briefly noted those of the limpets—mollusks which dwell in a conical shell, which faces the water with a domelike outside, and which at the moment of the stroke is drawn down upon the rock by the strong muscle which fastens the creature to its foundation. The barnacles, which with their wedge-shaped prows cut the water at the moment of the stroke, but open in the pauses between the waves, so that the creature may with its branching arms grasp at the food which floats about it; the nullipores, forms of seaweed which are framed of limestone and cling firmly to the rock—afford yet other instances of protective adaptations contrived to insure the safety of creatures which dwell in the field of abundant food supply.

* * * * *

The facts above presented will show the reader that the marine sediments are formed under conditions which permit a great variety in the nature of the materials of which they are composed. As soon as the deposits are built into rocks and covered by later accumulations, their materials enter the laboratory of the under earth, where they are subjected to progressive changes. Even before they have attained a great depth, through the laying down of later deposits upon them, changes begin which serve to alter their structure. The fragments of a soluble kind begin to be dissolved, and are redeposited, so that the mass commonly becomes much more solid, passing from the state of detritus to that of more or less solid rock. When yet more deeply buried, and thereby brought into a realm of greater warmth, or perhaps when penetrated by dikes and thereby heated, these changes go yet further. More of the material is commonly rearranged by solution and redeposition, so that limestone may be converted into crystalline marble, granular sandstones into firm masses, known as quartzites, and clays into the harder form of slate. Where the changes go to the extreme point, rocks originally distinctly bedded probably may be so taken to pieces and made over that all traces of their stratification may be destroyed, all fossils obliterated, and the stone transformed into mica schist, or granite or other crystalline rock. It may be injected into the overlying strata in the form of dikes, or it may be blown forth into the air through volcanoes. Involved in mountain-folding, after being more or less changed in the manner described, the beds may become tangled together like the rumpled leaves of a book, or even with the complexity of snarled thread. All these changes of condition makes it difficult for the geologist to unravel the succession of strata so that he may know the true order of the rocks, and read from them the story of the successive geological periods. This task, though incomplete, has by the labours of many thousand men been so far advanced that we are now able to divide the record into chapters, the divisions of the geologic ages, and to give some account of the succession of events, organic and geographic, which have occurred since life began to write its records.

EARTHQUAKES.

In ordinary experience we seem to behold the greater part of the earth which meets our eyes as fixed in its position. A better understanding shows us that nothing in this world is immovable. In the realm of the inorganic world the atoms and molecules even in solid bodies have to be conceived as endowed with ceaseless though ordered motions. Even when matter is built into the solid rock, it is doubtful whether any grain of it ever comes really to rest. Under the strains which arise from the contraction of the earth's interior and the chemical changes which the rocks undergo, each bit is subject to ever-changing thrusts, which somewhat affect its position. If we in any way could bring a grain of sand from any stratum under a microscope, so that we could perceive its changes of place, we should probably find that it was endlessly swaying this way and that, with reference to an ideally fixed point, such as the centre of the earth. But even that centre, whether of gravity or of figure, is probably never at rest.

Earth movements may be divided into two groups—those which arise from the bodily shifting of matter, which conveys the particles this way or that, or, as we say, change their place, and those which merely produce vibration, in which the particles, after their vibratory movement, return to their original place. For purposes of illustration the first, or translatory motion, may be compared to that which takes place when a bell is carried along upon a locomotive or a ship; and the second, or vibratory movement, to what takes place when the bell is by a blow made to ring. It is with these ringing movements, as we may term them, that we find ourselves concerned when we undertake the study of earthquakes.

It is desirable that the reader should preface his study of earthquakes by noting the great and, at the same time, variable elasticity of rocks. In the extreme form this elasticity is very well shown when a toy marble, which is made of a close-textured rock, such as that from which it derives its name, is thrown upon a pavement composed of like dense material. Experiment will show that the little sphere can often be made to bounce to the height of twenty feet without breaking. If, then, with the same energy the marble is thrown upon a brick floor, the rebound will be very much diminished. It is well to consider what happens to produce the rebound. When the sphere strikes the floor it changes its shape, becoming shorter in the axis at right angles to the point which was struck, and at the same instant expanded along the equator of that axis. The flattening remains for only a small fraction of a second; the sphere vibrates so that it stretches along the line on which it previously shortened, and, as this movement takes place with great swiftness, it may be said to propel itself away from the floor. At the same time a similar movement goes on in the rock of the floor, and, where the rate of vibration is the same, the two kicks are coincident, and so the sphere is impelled violently away from the point of contact. Where the marble comes in contact with brick, in part because of the lesser elasticity of that material, due to its rather porous structure, and partly because it does not vibrate at the same rate as the marble, the expelling blow is much less strong.

All rocks whatever, even those which appear as incoherent sands, are more or less set into vibratory motion whenever they are struck by a blow. In the crust of the earth various accidents occur which may produce that sudden motion which we term a blow. When we have examined into the origin of these impulses, and the way in which they are transmitted through the rocks, we obtain a basis for understanding earthquake shocks. The commonest cause of the jarrings in the earth is found in the formation of fractures, known as faults. If the reader has ever been upon a frozen lake at a time when the weather was growing colder, and the ice, therefore, was shrinking, he may have noted the rending sound and the slight vibration which comes with the formation of a crack traversing the sheet of ice. At such a time he feels a movement which is an earthquake, and which represents the simpler form of those tremors arising from the sudden rupture of fault planes. If he has a mind to make the experiment, he may hang a bullet by a thread from a small frame which rests upon the ice, and note that as the vibration occurs the little pendulum sways to and fro, thus indicating the oscillations of the ice. The same instrument will move in an identical manner when affected by a quaking in the rocks.

Where the rocks are set in vibration by a rent which is formed in them, the phenomena are more complicated, and often on a vastly larger scale than in the simple conditions afforded by a sheet of ice. The rocks on either side of the rupture generally slide over each other, and the opposing masses are rent in their friction upon one another; the result is, not only the first jar formed by the initial fracture, but a great many successive movements from the other breakages which occur. Again, in the deeper parts of the crust, the fault fissures are often at the moment of their formation filled by a violent inrush of liquid rock. This, as it swiftly moves along, tears away masses from the walls, and when it strikes the end of the opening delivers a blow which may be of great violence. The nature of this stroke may be judged by the familiar instance where the relatively slow-flowing stream from a hydrant pipe is suddenly choked by closing the stopcock. Unless the plumber provides a cushion of air to diminish the energy of the blow, it is often strong enough to shake the house. Again, when steam or other gases are by a sudden diminution of pressure enabled to expand, they may deliver a blow which is exactly like that caused by the explosion of gunpowder, which, even when it rushes against the soft cushion of the air, may cause a jarring that may be felt as well as heard to a great distance. Such movements very frequently occur in the eruptions of volcanoes; they cause a quivering of the earth, which may be felt for a great distance from the immediate seat of the disturbance.

When by any of the sudden movements which have been above described a jar is applied to the rocks, the wave flies through the more or less elastic mass until the energy involved in it is exhausted. This may not be brought about until the motion has travelled for the distance of hundreds of miles. In the great earthquake of 1755, known as the Lisbon shock, the records make it seem probable that the movement was felt over one eighth part of the earth's surface. Such great disturbances probably bring about a motion of the rocks near the point of origin, which may be expressed in oscillations having an amplitude of one to two feet; but in the greater number of earthquakes the maximum swing probably does not exceed the tenth of that amount. Very sensible shaking, even such as may produce considerable damage to buildings, are caused by shocks in which the earth vibrates with less than an inch of swing.

When a shock originates, the wave in the rocks due to the compression which the blow inflicts runs at a speed varying with the elasticity of the substance, but at the rate of about fifteen hundred feet a second. The movements of this wave are at right angles to the seat of the originating disturbance, so that the shock may come to the surface in a line forming any angle between the vertical and the nearly horizontal. Where, as in a volcanic eruption, the shock originates with an explosion, these waves go off in circles. Where, however, as is generally the case, the shock originates in a fault plane, which may have a length and depth of many miles, the movement has an elliptical form.

If the earthquake wave ran through a uniform and highly elastic substance, such as glass, it would move everywhere with equal speed, and, in the case of the greater disturbances, the motion might be felt over the whole surface of the earth. But as the motion takes place through rocks of varying elasticity, the rate at which it journeys is very irregular. Moving through materials of one density, and with a rate of vibration determined by those conditions, the impulse is with difficulty communicated to strata which naturally vibrate at another speed. In many cases, as where a shock passing through dense crystalline strata encounters a mass of soft sandstone, the wave, in place of going on, is reflected back toward its point of origin. These earthquake echoes sometimes give rise to very destructive movements. It often happens that before the original tremors of a shock have passed away from a point on the surface the reflex movements rush in, making a very irregular motion, which may be compared to that of the waves in a cross-sea.

The foregoing account of earthquake action will serve to prepare the reader for an understanding of those very curious and important effects which these accidents produce in and on the earth. Below the surface the sensible action of earthquake shocks is limited. It has often been observed that people in mines hardly note a swaying which may be very conspicuous to those on the surface, the reason for this being that underground, where the rocks are firmly bound together, all those swingings which are due to the unsupported position of such objects as buildings, columnar rocks, trees, and the waters of the earth, are absent. The effect of the movements which earthquakes impress on the under earth is mainly due to the fact that in almost every part of the crust tensions or strains of other kinds are continually forming. These may for ages prove without effect until the earth is jarred, when motions will suddenly take place which in a moment may alter the conditions of the rocks throughout a wide field. In a word, a great earthquake caused by the formation of an extensive fault is likely to produce any number of slight dislocations, each of which is in turn shock-making, sending its little wave to complicate the great oscillation. Nor does the perturbing effect of these jarring movements cease with the fractures which they set up and the new strains which are in turn developed by the motions which they induce. The alterations of the rocks which are involved in chemical changes are favoured by such motions. It is a familiar experience that a vessel of water, if kept in the state of repose, may have its temperature lowered three or four degrees below the freezing point without becoming frozen. If the side of the vessel is then tapped with the finger, so as to send a slight quake through the mass, it will instantly congeal. Molecular rearrangements are thus favoured by shocks, and the consequences of those which run through the earth are, from a chemical point of view, probably important.

The reader may help himself to understand something of the complicated problem of earth tensions, and the corresponding movements of the rocks, by considering certain homely illustrations. He may observe how the soil cracks as it shrinks in times of drought, the openings closing when it rains. In a similar way the frozen earth breaks open, sometimes with a shock which is often counted as an earthquake. Again, the ashes in a sifter or the gravel on a sieve show how each shaking may relieve certain tensions established by gravity, while they create others which are in turn to be released by the next shock. An ordinary dwelling house sways and strains with the alternations of temperature and moisture to which it is subjected in the round of climatal alterations. Now and then we note the movements in a cracking sound, but by far the greater part of them escape observation.

With this sketch of the mechanism of earthquake shocks we now turn to consider their effects upon the surface of the earth. From a geological point of view, the most important effect of earthquake shocks is found in the movement of rock masses down steep slopes, which is induced by the shaking. Everywhere on the land the agents of decay and erosion tend to bring heavy masses into position where gravitation naturally leads to their downfall, but where they may remain long suspended, provided they are not disturbed. Thus, wherever there are high and steep cliffs, great falls of rock are likely to occur when the earthquake movements traverse the under earth. In more than one instance observers, so placed that they commanded a view of distant mountains, have noticed the downfall of precipices in the path of the shock before the trembling affected the ground on which they stood. In the famous earthquake of 1783, which devastated southern Italy, the Prince of Scylla persuaded his people to take refuge in their boats, hoping that they might thereby escape the destruction which threatened them on the land. No sooner were the unhappy folk on the water than the fall of neighbouring cliffs near the sea produced a great wave, which overwhelmed the vessels.

Where the soil lies upon steep slopes, in positions in which it has accumulated during ages of tranquillity, a great shock is likely to send it down into the valleys in vast landslides. Thus, in the earthquake of 1692, the Blue Mountains of Jamaica were so violently shaken that the soil and the forests which stood on it were precipitated into the river beds, so that many tree-clad summits became fields of bare rock. The effect of this action is immensely to increase the amount of detritus which the streams convey to the sea. After the great Jamaica shock, above noted, the rivers for a while ceased to flow, their waters being stored in the masses of loose material. Then for weeks they poured forth torrents of mud and the debris of vegetation—materials which had to be swept away as the streams formed new channels.

In all regions where earthquake movements are frequent, and the shock of considerable violence, the trained observer notes that the surfaces of bare rock are singularly extensive, the fact being that many of these areas, where the slope lies at angles of from ten to thirty degrees, which in an unshaken region would be thickly soil-covered, are deprived of the coating by the downward movement of the waste which the disturbances bring about. A familiar example of this action may be had by watching the workmen engaged in sifting sand, by casting the material on a sloping grating. The work could not be done but for an occasional blow applied to the sifter. An arrangement for such a jarring motion is commonly found in various ore-dressing machines, where the object is to move fragments of matter over a sloping surface.

Even where the earth is so level that an earthquake shock does not cause a sliding motion of the materials, such as above described, other consequences of the shaking may readily be noted. As the motion runs through the mass, provided the movement be one of considerable violence, crevices several feet in width, and sometimes having the length of miles, are often formed. In most cases these fissures, opened by one pulsation of the shock, are likely to be closed by the return movement, which occurs the instant thereafter. The consequences of this action are often singular, and in cases constitute the most frightful elements of a shock which the sufferer beholds. In the great earthquake of 1811, which ravaged the section of the Mississippi Valley between the mouth of the Ohio and Vicksburg, these crevices were so numerously formed that the pioneers protected themselves from the danger of being caught in their jaws by felling trees so that they lay at right angles to the direction in which the rents extended, building on these timbers platforms to support their temporary dwelling places. The records of earthquakes supply many instances in which people have been caught in these earth fissures, and in a single case it is recorded that a man who disappeared into the cavity was in a moment cast forth in the rush of waters which in this, as in many other cases, spouts forth as the walls of the opening come together.

Sometimes these rents are attended by a dislocation, which brings the earth on one side much higher than on the other. The step thus produced may be many miles in length, and may have a height of twenty feet or more. It needs no argument to show that we have here the top of a fault such as produced the shock, or it may be one of a secondary nature, such as any earthquake is likely to bring about in the strata which it traverses. In certain cases two faults conjoin their action, so that a portion of the surface disappears beneath the earth, entombing whatever may have stood on the vanished site. Thus in the great shock known as that of Lisbon, which occurred in 1755, the stone quay along the harbour, where many thousand people had sought refuge from the falling buildings of the city, suddenly sank down with the multitude, and the waters closed over it; no trace of the people or of the structure was to be found after the shock was over. There is a story to the effect that during the same earthquake an Arab village in northern Africa sank down, the earth on either side closing over it, so that no trace of the habitations remained. In both these instances the catastrophes are best explained by the diagram.



In the earthquake of 1811 the alluvial plains on either side of the Mississippi at many points sank down so that arable land was converted into lakes; the area of these depressions probably amounted to some hundred square miles. The writer, on examining these sunken lands, found that the subsidences had occurred where the old moats or abandoned channels of the great river had been filled in with a mixture of decaying timber and river silt. When violently shaken, this loose-textured debris naturally settled down, so that it formed a basin occupied by a crescent-shaped lake. The same process of settling plentifully goes on wherever the rocks are still in an uncemented state. The result is often the production of changes which lead to the expulsion of gases. Thus, in the Charleston earthquake of 1883, the surface over an area of many hundred square miles was pitted with small craters, formed by the uprush of water impelled by its contained gases. These little water volcanoes—for such we may call them—sometimes occur to the number of a dozen or more on each acre of ground in the violently shaken district. They indicate one result of the physical and chemical alterations which earthquake shocks bring about. As earthquakes increase in violence their effect upon the soil becomes continually greater, until in the most violent shocks all the loose materials on the surface of the earth may be so shaken about as to destroy even the boundaries of fields. After the famous earthquake of Riobamba, which occurred on the west coast of South America in 1797, the people of the district in which the town of that name was situated were forced to redivide their land, the original boundaries having disappeared. Fortunately, shocks of this description are exceedingly rare. They occur in only a few parts of the world.

Certain effects of earthquakes where the shock emerges beneath the sea have been stated in the account of volcanic eruptions (see page 299). We may therefore note here only certain of the more general facts. While passing through the deep seas, this wave may have a height of not more than two or three feet and a width of some score miles. As it rolls in upon the shore the front of the undulation is retarded by the friction of the bottom in such a measure that its speed is diminished, while the following part of the waves, being less checked, crowds up toward this forward part. The result is, that the surge mounts ever higher and higher as it draws near the shore, upon which it may roll as a vast wave having the height of fifty feet or more and a width quite unparalleled by any wave produced from wind action. Waves of this description are most common in the Pacific Ocean. Although but occasional, the damage which they may inflict is very great. As the movement approaches the shore, vessels, however well anchored, are dragged away to seaward by the great back lash of the wave, a phenomenon which may be perceived even in the case of the ordinary surf. Thus forced to seaward, the crews of the ships may find their vessels drawn out for the distance of some miles, until they come near the face of the advancing billow. This, as it approaches the shore, straightens up to the wall-fronted form, and then topples upon the land. Those vessels which are not at once crushed down by the blow are generally hurled far inland by the rush of waters. In the great Jamaica earthquake of 1692 a British man-of-war was borne over the tops of certain warehouses and deposited at a distance from the shore.

Owing to the fact that water is a highly elastic material, the shocks transmitted to it from the bottom are sent onward with their energy but little diminished. While the impulse is very violent, these oscillations may prove damaging to shipping. The log-books of mariners abound in stories of how vessels were dismasted or otherwise badly shaken by a sudden blow received in the midst of a quiet sea. The impression commonly conveyed to the sailors is that the craft has struck upon a rock. The explanation is that an earthquake jar, in traversing the water, has delivered its blow to the ship. As the speed of this jarring movement is very much greater than that of any ordinary wave, the blow which it may strike may be most destructive. There seems, indeed, little reason to doubt that a portion of the vessels which are ever disappearing in the wilderness of the ocean are lost by the crushing effect of these quakings which pass through the waters of the deep.

We have already spoken of the earthquake shock as an oscillation. It is a quality of all bodies which oscillate under the influence of a blow, such as originates in earthquake shocks, to swing to and fro, after the manner of the metal in a bell or a tuning fork, in a succession of movements, each less than the preceding, until the impulse is worn out, or rather, we should in strict sense say, changed to other forms of energy. The result is, that even in the slightest earthquake shock the earth moves not once to and fro, but very many times. In a considerable shock the successive diminishing swingings amount to dozens before they become so slight as to elude perception. Although the first swaying is the strongest, and generally the most destructive, the quick to-and-fro motions are apt to continue and to complete the devastation which the first brings about. The vibrations due to any one shock take place with great rapidity. They may, indeed, be compared to those movements which we perceive in the margin of a large bell when it has received a heavy blow from the clapper. The reader has perhaps seen that for a moment the rim of the bell vibrates with such rapidity that it has a misty look—that is, the motions elude the sight. It is easy to see that a shaking of this kind is particularly calculated to disrupt any bodies which stand free in the air and are supported only at their base.

In what we may call the natural architecture of the earth, the pinnacles and obelisks, such as are formed in many high countries, the effect of these shakings is destructive, and, as we have seen, even the firmer-placed objects, such as the strong-walled cliffs and steep slopes of earth, break down under the assaults. It is therefore no matter of surprise that the buildings which man erects, where they are composed of masonry, suffer greatly from these tremblings. In almost all cases human edifices are constructed without regard to other problems of strength than those which may be measured by their weight and the resistance to fracture from gravitation alone. They are not built with expectation of a quaking, but of a firm-set earth.