Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Hutton's theory followed by elaborations, examples, and responses to criticisms, much as
Hutton himself had dreamed of presenting it.
In bringing Hutton's ideas to the attention of mainstream scholars, Playfair also ex-
plained how rivers could carve topography—given enough time. He argued that “rivers
have, in general, hollowed out their valleys” because “the general structure of valleys
among mountains is highly unfavorable to the notion that they were produced by any single
verged in all directions from the center of mountain ranges, so a single current sweeping
across the terrain could not have carved them all. Neither could a single current have carved
valleys running at right angles to each other or perpendicular to the overall trend of the
drainage from a mountain range. He went on to describe the division of landscapes into in-
tegrated networks of little valleys connected to larger valleys, each seamlessly connecting
with the next at a common elevation regardless of size. Such a landscape could only be the
signature of running water slowly eroding Earth's surface. Ahead of his time by decades,
Playfair made a compelling case that Noah's Flood did not shape the world's topography.
Playfair also addressed Siberian mammoths. He noted that their bones were always found
in soil or alluvial deposits and never in the solid rock below. Writing in the style of his time,
he rambled on a bit before pointedly demolishing Kirwan's conception of the Flood.
If we consider attentively the facts that respect the Siberian fossil bones, there will appear insurmountable objec-
tions to every theory that supposes them to be exotic, and to have been brought into their present situation from
a distant country… . Shall we ascribe it to some immense torrent, which, sweeping across the desarts of Tartary,
and the mountains of Altai, transported the productions of India to the plains of Siberia, and interred in the mud
of the Lena animals that had fed on the banks of the Barampooter or the Ganges? Were all other objections of so
extraordinary a supposition removed, the preservation of the hide and muscles of a dead animal, and the adhesion
of the parts, while it was dragged for 2000 miles over some of the highest and most rugged mountains in the world,
is too absurd to be for a moment admitted.
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Playfair further noted how their carcasses would surely have rotted if these great beasts had
died in a tropical climate. Whatever they were, mammoths were not relics of the Flood.
By the close of the eighteenth century, theologians had begun to recognize the lack of a
unified explanation among natural philosophers for Noah's Flood and the age of the world.
