The Vedic fathers of geology

GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES OF THE Wrst. 93

(1) Primary rocks, that is rocks void _ of fossil, and contemporaneous : with the creation of the Earth, and

(2) Secondary rocks, that is rocks supposed to be fossiliferous, and formed after the creation of the Earth.

Subsequently, the great Leibnitz had, in 1680, divided rocks into

(i) Stratified, supposed to be the product

of deposition in water, and

(ii) Unstratiied, believed to be the result

of igneous fusion, and propounded a theory on the igneous origin of our planet, which supposed the Earth to be at first in a state of igneous fusion.

‘More than half a century later, Lehman, a German miner, proposed in 1756 to divide rocks 7010 three classes : The first and the oldest to be called (i) Primitive, comprising hypogene, or plutonic and matamorphic rocks ; thenext to betermed (ii) Secondary, comprehending the aqueous or fossiliferous strata; and (iii) the Remainder or the Third class corresponding to the alluvium—ancient ‘and modern—which he

referred to local floods and the deluge of Noah.

Now, this primitive class or formation contained no organic remains. Its origin may have