Page - 345 - in The Origin of Species
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PALiEON'TOLOGICAL COLLFXTION'S 345
formed the primordial nucleus of the globe, will admit that
these latter rocks have been stript of their covering to an
enormous extent. For it is scarcely possible that such rocks
could have been solidified and crystallized whilst uncovered;
but if the metamorphic action occurred at profound depths of
the ocean, the former protecting mantle of rock may not have
been ver>- thick. Admitting then that gneiss, mica-schist,
granite, diorite, &c., were once necessarily covered up, how
can we account for the naked and extensive areas of such
rocks in many parts of the world, except on the belief that
they have subsequently been completely denuded of all over-
lying strata? That such extensive areas do exist cannot be
doubted; the granitic region of Parime is described by Hum-
boldt as being at least nineteen times as large as Switzerland.
South of the Amazon, Boue colours an area composed of
rocks of this nature as equal to that of Spain, France, Italy,
part of Germany, and the British Islands, all conjoined. This
region has not been carefully explored, but from the concur-
rent testimony of travellers, the granitic area is very large;
thus, Von Eschwege gives a detailed section of these rocks,
stretching from Rio de Janeiro for 260 geographical miles
inland in a straight line; and I travelled for 150 miles in
another direction, and saw nothing but granitic rocks. Nu-
merous specimens, collected along the whole coast from near
Rio Janeiro to the mouth of the Plata, a distance of iioo geo-
graphical miles, were examined by me, and they all belonged
to this class. Inland, along the whole northern bank of the
Plata I saw, besides modern tertiary beds, only one small
patch of slightly metamorphosed rock, which alone could
have formed a part of the original capping of the granitic
series. Turning to a well-known region, namely, to the
United States and Canada, as shown in Professor H. D.
Rogers's beautiful map, I have estimated the areas by cutting
out and weighing the paper, and I find that the metamorphic
(excluding "the semi-metamorphic") and granitic rocks ex-
ceed, in the proportion of 19 to 12-5, the whole of the newer
Palaeozoic formations. In many regions the metamorphic and
granitic rocks would be found much more widely extended
than they appear to be, if all the sedimentary beds were re-
moved which rest unconformably on them, and which could
back to the
book The Origin of Species"
The Origin of Species
- Title
- The Origin of Species
- Author
- Charles Darwin
- Publisher
- P. F. Collier & Son
- Location
- New York
- Date
- 1909
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 10.5 x 16.4 cm
- Pages
- 568
- Keywords
- Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
- Categories
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Biologie
Table of contents
- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
- AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
- INTRODUCTION 21
- Variation under Domestication 25
- Variation under Nature 58
- Struggle for Existence 76
- Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
- Laws of Variation 145
- Difficulties of the Theory 178
- Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
- Instinct 262
- Hybridism 298
- On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
- On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
- Geographical Distribution 395
- Geographical Distribution - continued 427
- Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
- Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
- GLOSSARY 531
- INDEX 541