II

As with some of the other facts with which we have had to deal in
previous chapters, a correct understanding of the questions involved
can best be obtained by examining the history of the development of the
science.

The first man with whom we need to concern ourselves is A.G. Werner, a
teacher of mineralogy in the University of Freiberg, Germany. For three
hundred years his ancestors had been connected with mining work, and he,
though possessing little general education, knew about all that was then
known regarding mineralogy and petrology. He wrote no books; but by his
enthusiastic teaching he gathered as students and sent out as
evangelists hundreds of devoted young scientists who rapidly spread his
theories through all the countries of Europe.

"Unfortunately," says Zittel, "Werner's field observations were limited
to a small district, the Erz Mountains and the neighboring parts of
Saxony and Bohemia. And his chronological scheme of formations was
founded on the mode of occurrence of the rocks within these narrow
confines."[34]

[Footnote 34: "History of Geology," p. 59.]

Werner had found the granites, limestones, sandstones, schists, etc.,
occurring in a certain relative order in his native country; and he drew
the very remarkable conclusion that this was the _normal_ order in which
these various rocks would invariably be found in all parts of the world,
on the theory that this was the order in which these different rocks had