THE EARTH FORMED—ERA OF THE PRIMARY ROCKS

Summary

Although the earth has not been actually penetrated to a greater depth than three thousand feet, the nature of its material can, in many instances, be inferred for the depth of many miles by other means of observation. We see a mountain composed of a particular substance, with strata, or beds of other rock, lying against its sloped sides; we, of course, infer that the substance of the mountain dips away under the strata which we see lying against it. Suppose that we walk away from the mountain across the turned up edges of the stratified rocks, and that for many miles we continue to pass over other stratified rocks, all disposed in the same way, till we at length come to a place where we begin to cross the opposite edges of the same beds. We then pass over these rocks, all in reverse order, till we come to another extensive mountain composed of similar material to the first, and shelving away under the strata in the same way. We should then infer that the stratified rocks occupied a basin formed by the material of these two mountains, and by calculating the thickness right through these strata, could say to what depth the rock of the mountain extended below. By such means, the kind of rock existing many miles below the surface can often be inferred with considerable confidence.