CHAPTER I. GEOLOGY.

FOSSILS—EVIDENCES OF EARLY ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE—GEOLOGICAL AGES—ROCK FORMATION—GLACIER PERIOD—MINERALS.

The oldest citizens of Atchison county are the animals and plants whose fossil remains² now lie buried in the solid rocks. These denizens³ of long ago, by their lives, made it possible for later and better citizens to live and flourish in the happy and contented⁴ homes of her best citizens of the present day. Long before man ever saw Atchison county—long before man lived anywhere upon this earth, the seas swarmed⁵ with animal life and the dry lands supported a fauna⁶ and a flora⁷ substantially as great as those of the present time.

In character the animals and plants of those early days were very different from those of the present time. Almost all of their kind long ago became extinct. It is only the few who have living representatives anywhere in the world today, and they are degraded in form and size as though they had long outlived their usefulness. Some of the animals live in the waters of distant oceans, such as the brachiopods and other shell fish; the crinoids or sea lilies, and others of like character. On the dry land we find a few insects of the cock-roach type and other creeping things which inhabit dark and damp places, animals of gloom on whose forms the sunshine of day rarely falls.

The plants, likewise, are degraded in size and form. The modern bull-rushes of our swamps are descendants of ancient giants of their kind which 18grew to ten or twenty times the size of their modern representatives. The little creeping vines sometimes found in the shaded forest are lineal descendants of the mighty⁸ trees of the forests in the long ago while materials were gathering⁹ for the rock masses constituting Atchison county.

In order to converse¹⁰ rationally about geological time it has been found most convenient to divide time into periods in accordance with great natural events, and to give a name to each period that in some way expresses something desirable to be known and remembered. Usually geographic¹¹ names of areas where rock masses are exposed to the surface of the ground are chosen, or some favorite geographic term may be used, and in rare instances some quality name expressive¹² of the character or composition of the rocks.

Following the best usage of geologists¹³ the rocks exposed at the surface all belong to the age known as the Carboniferous, which lies at the top of the Palaeozoic, or ancient life rocks. The Carboniferous is divided and subdivided¹⁴ into a number of divisions, the lowermost of which has been named the Mississippian on account of their great abundance throughout the Mississippi valley. Above the Mississippian we find a mass of alternating beds of shale¹⁵ and limestone¹⁶ and sandstone aggregating¹⁷ about 2,500 feet in thickness, called the Pennsylvanians, a term borrowed from the State of Pennsylvania, where rocks of the same age so abound¹⁸. Rocks formed during the remainder of geologic¹ time are not found in Atchison county, except the covering of soil and clay so abundant throughout the county. An old-time name for the Pennsylvanian rocks is the coal-measures, a term now on the decline because the newer names—well, it is newer.

It appears that from the close of the Pennsylvanian time to the present Atchison county has been dry land. At one time, quite recently, as geologists reckon time, climatic conditions changed so that the snow falling during the winter could not be melted during the summer, so that to the far north great quantities of snow and ice accumulated and gradually spread over the surface of a large part of North America. One limb of this ice mass moved slowly southward and covered all of Atchison county, and much adjacent territory, and brought with it vast quantities of soil and clay and gravel¹⁹ that the ice sheet, as a great scraper, picked up from the surface as it came along. When the ice finally melted this debris²⁰ was left, like a mantle²¹ of snow, covering the entire surface of Atchison county.

The rocks of Pennsylvanian age have within them much of value economically. Here and there inter-stratified with the sandstone and shale are large and valuable beds of coal, as is abundantly shown by the drilled wells and 19coal shafts²² within the county. It is probable that almost the entire county is underlaid with this same bed of coal, and if so it is worth substantially as much to the county as is the surface soil. It lies at so great a depth that it may be mined without any danger whatever of disturbing the surface.

Main Building State Orphans’ Home, Atchison, Kan.

The large amount of good hard limestone in the county guarantees an everlasting²³ supply of stone for road making, railroad ballast, crushed rock for concrete works and all other uses to which such limestone may be put. With the Missouri river on the eastern boundary carrying unlimited²⁴ amounts of sand Atchison county is well supplied with every material needed for unlimited amounts of mortar²⁵ construction of all kinds. Recently, since Portland cement construction has so effectually replaced stone masonry²⁶, this becomes a very important matter.

Should market conditions ever become favorable it is also possible to manufacture the best grades of Portland cement by properly combining the 20limestones and shales²⁷ of the county. Their chemical and physical properties are admirably suited for such purposes.

There is a possibility that somewhere within the county oil and gas may be found by proper prospecting²⁸. As no search for these materials has yet been made it is impossible to say what the results might be. Atchison county, however, lies within the oil zone that has been proven to be so much farther south, and until proper search has been made no one can say that oil and gas cannot be found here also.

1 geologic   

adj.地质的

参考例句：

• The Red Sea is a geologic continuation of the valley.红海就是一个峡谷在地质上的继续发展。
• Delineation of channels is the first step of geologic evaluation.勾划河道的轮廓是地质解译的第一步。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 denizens   

n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• polar bears, denizens of the frozen north 北极熊，在冰天雪地的北方生活的动物
• At length these denizens of the swamps disappeared in their turn. 到了后来，连这些沼泽国的居民们也不见了。 来自辞典例句

4 contented   

adj.满意的，安心的，知足的

参考例句：

• He won't be contented until he's upset everyone in the office.不把办公室里的每个人弄得心烦意乱他就不会满足。
• The people are making a good living and are contented,each in his station.人民安居乐业。

5 swarmed   

密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• When the bell rang, the children swarmed out of the school. 铃声一响，孩子们蜂拥而出离开了学校。
• When the rain started the crowd swarmed back into the hotel. 雨一开始下，人群就蜂拥回了旅社。

6 fauna   

n.(一个地区或时代的)所有动物，动物区系

参考例句：

• This National Park is an area with unique fauna and flora.该国家公园区域内具有独特的动物种群和植物种群。
• Fauna is a biological notion means all the animal life in a particular region or period. 动物群是一个生物学的概念，指的是一个特定时期或者地区的所有动物。

7 flora   

n.(某一地区的)植物群

参考例句：

• The subtropical island has a remarkably rich native flora.这个亚热带岛屿有相当丰富的乡土植物种类。
• All flora need water and light.一切草木都需要水和阳光。

8 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

9 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

10 converse   

vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反

参考例句：

• He can converse in three languages.他可以用3种语言谈话。
• I wanted to appear friendly and approachable but I think I gave the converse impression.我想显得友好、平易近人些,却发觉给人的印象恰恰相反。

11 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

12 expressive   

adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的

参考例句：

• Black English can be more expressive than standard English.黑人所使用的英语可能比正式英语更有表现力。
• He had a mobile,expressive,animated face.他有一张多变的，富于表情的，生动活泼的脸。

13 geologists   

地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Geologists uncovered the hidden riches. 地质学家发现了地下的宝藏。
• Geologists study the structure of the rocks. 地质学家研究岩石结构。

14 subdivided   

再分，细分( subdivide的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The compound was subdivided into four living areas. 那个区域被划分成4个居住小区。
• This part of geologic calendar has not been satisfactorily subdivided. 这部分地质年代表还没有令人满意地再细分出来。

15 shale   

n.页岩，泥板岩

参考例句：

• We can extract oil from shale.我们可以从页岩中提取石油。
• Most of the rock in this mountain is shale.这座山上大部分的岩石都是页岩。

16 limestone   

n.石灰石

参考例句：

• Limestone is often used in building construction.石灰岩常用于建筑。
• Cement is made from limestone.水泥是由石灰石制成的。

17 aggregating   

总计达…( aggregate的现在分词 )； 聚集，集合； （使）聚集

参考例句：

• The thesis first promotes based Object Oriented Modeling method-Aggregating & Deriving Mothod. 本文首先提出了基于面向对象思想的建模方法——聚合派生法。
• Multidimensional data cubes are composed of base cube and other cubes aggregating on base cube. 多维立方体由基本立方体和基本立方体的聚集产生的立方体组成。

18 abound   

vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于

参考例句：

• Oranges abound here all the year round.这里一年到头都有很多橙子。
• But problems abound in the management of State-owned companies.但是在国有企业的管理中仍然存在不少问题。

19 gravel   

n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石

参考例句：

• We bought six bags of gravel for the garden path.我们购买了六袋碎石用来铺花园的小路。
• More gravel is needed to fill the hollow in the drive.需要更多的砾石来填平车道上的坑洼。

20 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

21 mantle   

n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红

参考例句：

• The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green.大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
• The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow.山上覆盖着一层雪。

22 shafts   

n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等）

参考例句：

• He deliberately jerked the shafts to rock him a bit. 他故意的上下颠动车把，摇这个老猴子几下。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Shafts were sunk, with tunnels dug laterally. 竖井已经打下，并且挖有横向矿道。 来自辞典例句

23 everlasting   

adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的

参考例句：

• These tyres are advertised as being everlasting.广告上说轮胎持久耐用。
• He believes in everlasting life after death.他相信死后有不朽的生命。

24 unlimited   

adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。

25 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

26 masonry   

n.砖土建筑；砖石

参考例句：

• Masonry is a careful skill.砖石工艺是一种精心的技艺。
• The masonry of the old building began to crumble.旧楼房的砖石结构开始崩落。

27 shales   

n.页岩( shale的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Sandstones are, as a rule, interbedded with shales. 砂岩通常都与页岩互层。 来自辞典例句
• Oil-yielding organic matter is contained in the shales. 在这些页岩里有产油的有机物质。 来自辞典例句

28 prospecting   

n.探矿

参考例句：

• The prospecting team ploughed their way through the snow. 探险队排雪前进。
• The prospecting team has traversed the length and breadth of the land. 勘探队踏遍了祖国的山山水水。