Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men (1897) (14596842827)

Identifier: ridpathshistoryo01ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men ..
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history Ethnology
Publisher: New York, Merrill & Baker
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston University



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but only to by the geologists of the nineteenth cen-note the epoch in which it became habit- tury. The result has been a tolerably 84 GREAT RACES OF MANKIND. complete investigation of the characterof the earths crust and of the order ofworld formation. A summary of theseresults may here be presented with aview to showing the epoch of man. In the bottom of the world we have the azoic, or lifeless, age. Above this, and next in order of succes- Outline of the order of the sion, we have the palaeozoic age; that is, the ancient life period of world formation. Above this the Carboniferous, and the Pemian strataof the earths crust. The secondaryrocks of the neozoic age include theTriassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous,or chalk, formations. The tertiary, orcaenozoic, rocks are divided into whatare called the eocene, the miocene, andthe pliocene, and above these we havethe superficial formations known as thepost-tertiary, quaternary, pleistocene, ormost recent deposits of all. This sketch
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PAL/EOZOIC AGE OK THE EARTH.—Cambro-Silurian Landscape.—Drawn by Riou. and succeeding it we have the neozoic,or new-life, age, reaching to the surfaceand including the present life-forms ofthe world. For convenience, the neozoicage has been divided into a lower, calledthe secondary, or mesozoic, period; andan upper, called the tertiary epoch. Thepalaeozoic age, if we begin at the bottom,next to the azoic rocks, includes theCambrian, the Silurian, the Devonian, includes what are known as the fossil-iferous strata of the world, reachingdownward from the present fauna andflora of the surface to the lifeless bed ofthe azoic rocks. It is needless to urge upon the atten-tion of any intelligent reader the greatperiods of time which are indicated inthe geological formation of the earth.How great these periods are has never TIME OF THE BEGINNING.—ARGUMENT FROM GEOLOGY 85 been determined, and it is possible thattheir duration may remain indeterminateExact time to the end of time. But meas