Nature and Culture Part 1

Nature and Culture.

by Harvey Rice.

NOTE.

The first edition of "Nature and Culture" was published in 1875. The degree of favor with which the book was received has induced the author to publish a second edition, in which he has made a few changes and additions of such a character as to render the work, he trusts, still worthier of acceptance.

CLEVELAND, OHIO, August 20, 1889.

NATURE AND HER LESSONS.

Nature declares herself in her works. What exists beyond her domain, if anything, becomes necessarily a matter of faith or imagination; and yet the origin of the material universe presents a problem which neither the vagaries of the ancients nor the speculations of the moderns have been able to solve in a satisfactory manner.

In modern methods of logic, we reason from cause to effect, from the known to the unknown; but in attempting to penetrate the region of the unknown, we are often left without a reliable guide. a.n.a.logy may aid, but cannot a.s.sure us. The powers of the human mind, if not infinite, may admit of infinite culture. What is supposed to be "unknowable" may therefore become known. However this may be, there is no divine injunction which prescribes a limit to human possibilities.

Whatever we may think or believe, the volume of Nature contains nothing but truth; it is a divine record which is as inexhaustible in its wealth of knowledge as it is conclusive in its logic. Men of science, in attempting to read this unerring record, have advanced many plausible theories in relation to the processes by which the earth acquired its embodiment, and took its place among the golden orbs of heaven.

There are reasons for believing that matter has always existed in some form or other, and that it is infinite in extent as well as in duration.

Nor need we hesitate to infer, from the knowledge we have of the various forms in which matter exists, that what is true of the earth in its processes of development is equally true of every other planet.

Whether the earth in its origin was a fragment thrown off from some exploded planet which had filled the measure of its destiny, or whether it arose from the gradual accretion of elementary substances diffused in infinite s.p.a.ce, are questions which cannot be satisfactorily answered.

Either method is not only plausible, but consistent with the known laws and operations of Nature.

It seems quite probable that those erratic bodies known as comets are but incipient planets, which continue, as they revolve in their mystical flight, to acc.u.mulate gaseous matter until they have acquired and condensed a sufficient amount to become orbs, or worlds; when, by the influence of physical forces, they take their places in some one or other of the existing planetary systems. It is thus perhaps that the law of development constructs a world with as much ease as it constructs a grain of sand; nor can we doubt that the processes of aggregation and dissolution are made reciprocal in their relations, and perpetual in their action.

In a philosophical sense, "life" and "death" are but conventional terms, meaning nothing more than a change of matter from one form of existence to another. Whatever changes may take place, matter can neither be increased nor diminished. Infinite s.p.a.ce, being an immateriality, could never have been created and cannot therefore be limited or annihilated.

In all probability it still is, and always has been, filled with the elements of matter,--too subtile, perhaps, to be perceived, yet destined in the course of eternal ages to be wrought and re-wrought into infinite varieties of corporeal existences, mineral, vegetal, and animal, ever progressing from the imperfect to the perfect. Thus Nature teaches us the lesson that in perfection dwells the central Life, the quickening power of the universe.

In accordance with this view, we may regard every particle of matter in the universe as the germ of a world. And yet what are called original elements may be such, or may not. Supposed monads, or simple unities, if they exist at all, may be capable of a.n.a.lysis by the application of physical agencies or forces as yet unknown to science. Though science has disclosed much that is wonderful in the mechanism of Nature, there still lies before us an infinite unknown. Whether ultimately the human mind will become so enlarged and extended in its powers as to comprehend the infinite, admits of no positive a.s.surance; yet in the unrevealed design of the great future, such may be the result.

It is only in modern times that science has taken the advanced step, and led philosophy into the beautiful avenues of Nature, where, amid the infinite, she gazes at the universe, listens to the music of the spheres, and beholds the golden wealth of the infinite displayed on every side. It is thus that philosophy has become inspired with a desire to account for everything, and finds that Nature has written her own history in the hills and in the rocks, in the depths of the sea, and in the stars of heaven, leaving nothing for man to do except to read the record, and accept its truthful teachings. In fact, the material universe may be regarded as an outspoken revelation of the infinite.

The elementary substances which compose the earth and its atmosphere are essentially the same, and are not numerous, so far as ascertained. The leading vital principle is oxygen, which const.i.tutes at least one half of all known matter. The earth's crust is estimated to be about fifty miles thick. This estimate is based on the fact that in penetrating the earth, the heat uniformly increases at a rate which would fuse all mineral substances at that depth.

Hence, the interior of the earth is believed to be a region of molten substances, fiery billows that roll impatient of restraint, and escape here and there in the form of volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes are, therefore, but the outposts of gigantic central forces, and earthquakes but the spasmodic trials of their strength. It would seem, go where we will, that "fiery billows" literally roll beneath our feet. What Nature's ultimate designs are, it is impossible to predict. But it is pretty certain that her internal fires are working out some mystical problem. A scientific German has recently ascertained that the surface of the earth is gradually becoming hotter, and that in five hundred millions of years it will attain to such a degree of heat as to destroy human life. And yet there are other scientists equally wise, perhaps, who a.s.sert that the earth's crust is gradually cooling and contracting, and therefore radiating less heat, the final result of which will be the destruction of all life and a return of the glacial period.

Geological science, as well as revelation, impresses us with the belief that in the beginning "the earth was without form, and void,"--a chaos of atoms which were gathered, comet-like, from infinite s.p.a.ce, and made to revolve in a globular ma.s.s by physical forces, until it became, by the condensation of its vapory atmosphere, submerged in a flood of dark and interminable waters. In consequence of the action of the waters on mineral substances, vast deposits of sediment acc.u.mulated, which, with the aid of pressure and chemical heat, gradually hardened into rocks, strata upon strata, like solid masonry, and varying in thickness from the fraction of a mile to thirty miles or more. Nature seems to have adopted this method of construction as a prerequisite to the severance of the land from the waters. In effecting this object, the explosive forces, long confined in the earth's interior, are supposed to have burst asunder the walls of their prison-house, suddenly upheaving continents and mountains from the depths of a dismal and sh.o.r.eless ocean. It was then that the "dry land" made its first appearance, and was baptized in the pure sunlight of heaven.

The virgin soil of the earth, when thus exposed to the genial influence of the sun, soon produced vegetal life, and vegetal life animal life,--the one the food of the other. Thus Nature ever provides for her guests in advance of their reception. Yet in her formative processes she "makes haste slowly," though she may sometimes leap to conclusions. Her work never ceases. A million of years is to her as one day, and one day as a million of years. Hence everything has its age, and is lost in the ages. Of this fact we have reliable evidence in the strata of the rocks, and in the limited field of our own observation. There can be no doubt the earth has been many times baptized in fire and water, and its crust broken into fragments and thrown into strange angles and relations.

These grand upheavals have occurred at dates vastly remote from each other, and are recognized by science as great geological periods.

The Ages of Nature, so far as relates to the earth, may be cla.s.sed briefly as: the primary, or reign of fishes; the secondary, or reign of reptiles; the tertiary, or reign of mammals; and the modern, or reign of man. Each of these ages const.i.tutes a grand chapter in the earth's history, which is easily read and understood by the masters of geological science. The same agencies which were employed in constructing the earth's crust are still employed in reconstructing it.

In fact, the work of creation is still going on as in the beginning, if beginning there ever was in Nature's material processes. We see this ill.u.s.trated in the changes which are produced on the earth's surface in our own time by the action of the rain, the wind, the frost, the flood, the glacier, the volcano, and the earthquake.

It is by these agencies that the hills and the mountains are graded down, and the _detritus_ deposited in the valleys and in the sea; thus are valleys enriched and broadened, vast plains and deltas created, and continents enlarged. When the present hills and mountains have been reduced to plains, and the fertility of the soil exhausted, it is quite probable that another grand upheaval of the earth's foundations will occur,--the birth-power by which new hills and mountains are lifted up, and continents changed to ocean-beds, and ocean-beds to continents. It is these mighty changes and exchanges that prepare the way, and fit the earth for the production of higher orders of plants and animals, and perhaps a higher order of man.

In the course of unknown ages, Nature has enriched and extended the valley of the Nile hundreds of miles into the sea, by transporting thither the pulverized wealth of the Abyssinian mountains. Thus fertilized, Egypt has for many thousands of years sustained a dense population. Very justly has she been called not only the cradle of mankind, but the granary of the world. In like manner, the Ganges transports from the interior of India a sufficient amount of sediment annually to cover a towns.h.i.+p five miles square to the depth of ten feet, and by this means has extended the land hundreds of miles into the ocean. The Hoang-Ho, a river of China, by its deposits of alluvium in the sea has added an entire province to that country, comprising an area of ninety-six thousand square miles. Indeed, all rivers are tributaries to the sea, and all seas tributaries to the rivers. This exchange is effected mainly by the rains and the snows, the exhalations and the waterspouts. The clouds are but common carriers; this commerce is therefore a matter of mutual interest, and grows out of the positive necessities of sea and land. Though the elements appear to move in conflict, they really move in perfect harmony, and bring order out of seeming confusion.

In executing a gigantic work, no river has excelled the Mississippi.

This "Father of Waters" has distinctly indicated in the record of his career the prehistorical age of the world, and the equally prehistorical advent of man. In his "march to the sea" he has left enduring landmarks, and with his battle-axe notched centuries long lost in the mighty past.

The land which this majestic river has formed, by depositing sediment in the Gulf of Mexico, comprises an area of thirty thousand square miles.

This deposit or delta has a depth exceeding one thousand feet; and the period required for its acc.u.mulation has been estimated by Mr. Lyell, the renowned geologist, at one hundred thousand years.

This estimate only embraces the deposits since the river ran in its present channel. The bluffs along the river rise in many places two hundred and fifty feet, and contain sh.e.l.ls, with the remains of the mastodon, elephant, tapir, megalonyx, and other huge animals. It is evident that these bluffs must have belonged to an ancient plain or valley long anterior to the present level. In several sections of the valley as it now exists, excavations have been made deeper than the Gulf of Mexico, and successive growths of cypress-timber found, to the number of four or five distinct growths, the lowest lying at the depth of six hundred feet. Some of these trees are ten feet in diameter, and have from five to six thousand annual rings of growth.

As the valley of the river from age to age grew in elevation by deposits of sediment, a new growth of cypress was produced, and is now supervened by the live-oak plain, so called, which has had an existence, as estimated by the annual rings of the oaks, of fourteen thousand years.

In excavating for gas-works at New Orleans, a human skull was found beneath the roots of a cypress belonging to the fourth-forest level, in a good state of preservation, while the other bones of the skeleton crumbled to dust on exposure to the air. The type of the cranium was that of the aboriginal American. Now, if we take the period required to form the live-oak level, and add it to the time required to produce the next three subterranean growths of cypress, which overlie the fourth growth, in which the cranium was found, it clearly proves that the human race existed in the great valley of the Mississippi more than fifty-seven thousand years ago.

Not only in the valley of the Mississippi have fossil remains of man and animals been discovered at depths and in formations that prove their remote antiquity, but in many other parts of the world. Not many years ago, a human skull was found in Brazil, embedded in a sandstone rock overgrown with lofty trees. There is still preserved, in the museum at Quebec, a human skull which was excavated from the solid schist-rock on which the citadel now stands. Human skeletons have also been found in the island of Guadeloupe, embedded in a rock said to be as hard as the finest statuary marble. Even so recently as the year 1868, while sinking a well at the Antelope station, on the Union Pacific Railroad, the workmen penetrated a rock six feet thick, and at eighty feet below the rock discovered a human skeleton in such a state of preservation as to be readily recognized as such.

In another instance it is said that a human skull was discovered in Calaveras County, Cal., at the bottom of a shaft which had been sunk one hundred and thirty feet below the surface. It was found deposited in a bed of gravel with other organic remains, and beneath the eighth distinct geological layer of earth and gravel, where it must have lain, according to the estimate of Professor Whitney, the geologist, for a period of at least one hundred thousand years. This remote antiquity of man is also confirmed by discoveries in every part of the world of the fossil remains of domestic animals as well as of man, including implements of human invention, such as flint arrow-heads, stone axes, war-weapons, cooking-utensils, in localities which preclude the idea of their belonging to an age that has a written history.

It is not unfrequent that fossil remains of human bones and of animals are found embedded in the coral-reef limestone of Florida. In fact, says Professor Aga.s.siz, the whole peninsula of Florida has been formed by successive growths of coral reefs and sh.e.l.ls; he estimates the formation of the southern half of the peninsula as occupying a period of one hundred and thirty-five thousand years. The sea contains ingredients which feed innumerable animalcula, especially the polypes, or coral-builders, which have the power of secreting calcareous matter.

These myriads of noiseless architects are ever busy in building for themselves fairy temples in the depths of the ocean, of the most delicate and beautiful workmans.h.i.+p, and in erecting pyramids and islands, and in extending continents.

In the mean time there are other agencies of a very different character continually at work, modifying the earth's surface, and preparing it for sustaining a still higher order of vegetal and animal life. As a result of these agencies, especially the volcanic, it often happens that serious calamities befall the human family. In the course of a century, not less than two thousand volcanic eruptions occur on the globe, equal to twenty a year, or one every eighteen days. The whole number of volcanoes known to be active at the present time exceeds three hundred; and doubtless many times that number have long since become extinct.

In Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, there are extensive tracts or belts of country which are volcanic in their character; and especially is this true of the entire American-Pacific coast, and the ocean-bed adjoining it. Often have long lines of this coast been elevated or depressed many feet, as if the whole continent were afloat, and tossing like a s.h.i.+p on a stormy sea. Neither in the past, nor in the present, has the earth seemed to rest on a sure foundation. Even in apparent security there is no positive safety.

Nature must and will exercise her sterner as well as her milder powers.

In achieving gigantic works, she employs gigantic powers. Her forces are her own; and when she directs them to execute her mandates, she is promptly obeyed. She models and remodels the earth's exterior and interior at pleasure, but never without a beneficent design. Earthquakes break up the earth's crust. Internal fires melt it. Exploding gases lift it. Gravitation moulds it. The atmosphere cools it. The sun and the rain clothe it with verdure; and flowers crown it with beauty. In this way the earth's surface seems to have been prepared for the advent of man, and its interior supplied with coal-fields and reservoirs of oil and gas for his use.

Though Nature has made for man ample provision, she requires him not only to help himself, but to take care of himself. Nor does she give him formal notice to keep out of harm's way when she wishes to break up the earth's crust and re-cast it, but proceeds at once. She may sink or elevate a continent at a blow, or she may do it by slow degrees.

The earliest writers give us accounts of terrific earthquakes.

Thucydides alludes to volcanic eruptions which occurred five hundred years before the Christian era. In the vicinity of volcanic mountains, it has happened that city after city, in the course of ages, has been engulfed, one upon another, in molten lava, or cinders, leaving no record behind them of their unhappy fate. Herculaneum lies buried a hundred feet deep beneath the modern city of Portici; and beneath Herculaneum, a city still more ancient has been discovered, whose name and history are entirely unknown. How many other cities lie buried at the foot of the old fire-crowned monarch of Italy, no one can tell; but doubtless there are several of them. What induced people to occupy a locality so perilous, it is difficult to say, unless it was the superior fertility of a volcanic soil.

No part of the world is exempt from sudden calamities of a similar character. The earthquake experienced by the city of Antioch in Syria, in the year 626, destroyed two hundred and fifty thousand people. The great eruption of Mount Etna, in 1669, overflowed fourteen towns, containing from three to four thousand inhabitants each. The stream of lava which issued from the mountain was half a mile wide and forty feet deep, and swept everything before it, until lost in the sea. The earthquake at Lisbon, in 1775, killed sixty thousand persons in six minutes; the shock was felt in Switzerland, in Scotland, in Ma.s.sachusetts, and on the sh.o.r.e of Lake Ontario. In 1783, a large river in Iceland was sunk into the earth by volcanic action, and entirely obliterated. In 1792, an earthquake in the island of Java sunk a tract of land fifteen miles long and six miles wide, carrying down with it forty small villages. In our own country and in our own neighborhood, in 1811, several islands in the Mississippi River, near New Madrid, were sunk by an earthquake, and the course of the river driven back eighteen miles, causing it to overflow the adjacent lands; about half the county of New Madrid, as well as the village, was submerged. Several new lakes were created, one of which was sixty miles long and several miles wide.

The earth's surface rose in undulations like the billows of the sea, and with terrific utterances, opened yawning chasms, from which vast columns of sand and water, and a substance resembling c.o.ke, were thrown out. The whole face of the country in that region was materially changed. And, what is a little singular, one of the lakes thus created by the earthquake extended to the river at a point nearly opposite the famous Island No. 10, thus affording a natural ca.n.a.l by which the Union forces in the late civil war approached and took the island.

It is not improbable that the entire chain of our great northwestern lakes, from Ontario to Superior, were created by the volcanic collapse of a mountain range that once occupied the same localities. Of this fact there are plausible, if not irresistible, evidences to be seen in the volcanic character of the rocks at various points along the entire coast. Nor can it be very well doubted that subsequent volcanic action has elevated much of the coast into several corresponding ridges, from one to two miles apart, which distinctly mark the successive boundaries of these inland seas.

Nature removes mountains, or creates them, at pleasure. She also makes and unmakes lakes and rivers, to say nothing of oceans and continents.

In California, and doubtless in other parts of the world, there are as many dead as living rivers. The miners of California have already discovered the old channels of a dozen or more dead rivers, as they call them, encased and sealed up in the very heart of the mountain ranges, and extending in some instances hundreds of miles in the general direction of the ranges, and leaping from mountain to mountain at a common level or grade. These ancient channels are filled with sand, gravel, and small bowlders, evidently worn and polished by long attrition. Some of the channels are a mile wide, or more, and from ten to one hundred feet deep. In the angles or eddies, the sands are found to be exceedingly rich in gold, sometimes yielding fifty dollars or more to the cubic yard. It is estimated that over five hundred millions of dollars have already been taken from the sands of these dead rivers, and that they are now yielding at least ten millions a year. It is evident that these dead rivers must have been living rivers long before the volcanic era arrived, which elevated the ancient valleys into mountain ranges, and depressed the ancient mountain ranges into valleys.

In the South-American earthquake of August, 1868, thirty thousand lives were lost, several cities entirely obliterated, and three hundred millions of dollars' worth of property destroyed. A tidal wave, more than forty feet deep, swept over the land and deposited, high and dry, and beyond recovery, several first-cla.s.s s.h.i.+ps; the effect of this earthquake was felt along the coast for a distance of six to seven thousand miles. In October of the same year, the city of San Francisco was visited by an earthquake, which shattered many buildings, and destroyed several lives. It is supposed that this was but a prolongation of the South-American earthquake.

In some parts of California and South America, thunder and lightning seldom occur, while earthquakes are frequent; in regions like these, earthquakes would seem to be a subst.i.tute for thunder and lightning. In all probability both are but electrical phenomena, differing only in the fact that the one is an earthquake, the other a skyquake. It is in plains and valleys that earthquakes prove the most destructive.

Doubtless the solid material composing the mountain ranges affords a better conductor of electricity than the alluvial soil of the plains and the valleys; hence, while the one serves as a lightning-rod, the other becomes the battleground of conflicting elements. It may be that electrical forces are generated in the earth's interior, as well as in the atmosphere, and that the earthquake is but the shock produced by the restoration of an equilibrium. The earth and the atmosphere are essentially the same in their elements, and are ever contributing of their substance to the requisitions of each other.

When physical science shall be so far advanced as to explain the true causes of the earthquake, if it does not make man "master of the situation," it will doubtless place in his hands the power of avoiding, to some extent at least, the calamities which now so often befall life and property.