Ragnarok : the Age of Fire and GravelDonnelly, Ignatius
Science
Ragnarok : the Age of Fire and Gravel
Donnelly, Ignatius
Atlantis (Legendary place); Comets; Drift
This hypothesis explains the carriage of enormous blocks weighing
hundreds of tons from their original site to where they are now
found; but it is open to many unanswerable objections.
In the first place, if the Drift had been deposited under water deep
enough to float icebergs, it would present throughout unquestionable
evidences of stratification, for the reason that the larger masses of
stone would fall more rapidly than the smaller, and would be found at
the bottom of the deposit. If, for instance, you were to go to the
top of a shot-tower, filled with water, and let loose at the same
moment a quantity of cannon-balls, musket-balls, pistol-balls,
duck-shot, reed-bird shot, and fine sand, all mixed together, the
cannon-balls would reach the bottom first, and the other missiles in
the order of their size; and the deposit at the bottom would be found
to be regularly stratified, with the sand and the finest shot on top.
But nothing of this kind is found in the Drift, especially in the
"till"; clay, sand, gravel, stones,
{p. 14}
and bowlders are all found mixed together in the utmost confusion,
"higgledy-piggledy, pell-mell."
Says Geikie:
"Neither can till owe its origin to icebergs. If it had been
distributed over the sea-bottom, it would assuredly have shown some
kind of arrangement. When an iceberg drops its rubbish, it stands to
reason that the heavier blocks will reach the bottom first, then the
smaller stones, and lastly the finer ingredients. There is no such
assortment visible, however, in the normal 'till,' but large and
small stones are scattered pretty equally through the clay, which,
moreover, is quite unstratified."[1]
This fact alone disposes of the iceberg theory as an explanation of
the Drift.
Again: whenever deposits are dropped in the sea, they fall uniformly
and cover the surface below with a regular sheet, conforming to the
inequalities of the ground, no thicker in one place than another. But
in the Drift this is not the case. The deposit is thicker in the
valleys and thinner on the hills, sometimes absent altogether on the
higher elevations.
"The true bowlder-clay is spread out over the region under
consideration as a somewhat widely extended and uniform sheet, yet it
may be said to fill up all small valleys and depressions, and to be
thin or absent on ridges or rising grounds."[2]
That is to say, it fell as a snow-storm falls, driven by high winds;
or as a semi-fluid mass might be supposed to fall, draining down from
the elevations and filling up the hollows.
Again: the same difficulty presents itself which we found in the case
of "the waves of transplantation." Where did the material of the
Drift come from? On what sea-shore, in what river-beds, was this
incalculable mass of clay, gravel, and stones found?
[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 72.
2. "American Cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. 112.]
{p. 15}
Again: if we suppose the supply to have existed on the Arctic coasts,
the question comes,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account