Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ceaseless Change IL—The Extension of the Universe in Time No one can attentively observe the phenomena presented by almost any part of the earth's surface without recognizing the fact of ceaseless change. In all parts of the world where winters are cold enough for extensive frost work, a pile of rock fragments may be found at the foot of every cliff, often burying the cliff for half or more than half of its height. These fragments have evidently fallen from the summit, from which they have been shivered by the expansion of freezing water in the cracks of the rock. Most rivers are seen to be more or less turbid with the sediment which they are carrying, and thus on slight reflection it becomes obvious that the rivers are transporting the continents seaward. When rivers recede into their ordinary channels after their periodical or occasional floods, the meadow land which has been overflowed is found covered with a film of mud deposited in the inundation; and thus it is seen that rivers have not only a destructive but also a constructive effect. On the shore of the ocean, the waves may be seen in some places to be tearing rocks to pieces and encroaching upon the shore, while in other places they For an admirable sketch of the history of geology from ancient times to the early part of the nineteenth century, see Lyell, Principles of Geology, ch. ii-iv. fx-e also Gcikie, The Founders of Geology. For sketches of the more recent progress of geology, see Rice, Twenty-five Years of Scientific Progress, and Other Essays; Le Conte, A Century of Geology, in Popular Science Monthly, vol. Ivi. The whole subject is fully treated in von Zitiel, History of Geology and Palaontology. are depositing sand in beaches and reefs and spits, and thus extending the area of the land. In many par...