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 CONTENTS   vii

PART II Earth and Life History 140

Chapter 7 Birth of the Earth 142 10.4 The Mountains Rise: The Taconic Orogeny
7.2 Origins 144 (Middle–Late Ordovician) 220
10.5 Early Paleozoic Life 223
7.2 The “Big Bang” and the Origin of the
Universe 145
7.3 The Solar Nebula Hypothesis 149 Chapter 11 The Middle Paleozoic: Silurian and
7.4 The Earth Develops Layers 150 Devonian 238
Box 7.1: How Do We Know What Is Inside the 11.1 Reefs, Limestones, and Evaporites 240
151
Earth? 11.2 The Kaskaskia Sequence 245
7.5 Moonstruck 155 11.3 The Acadian Orogeny 245
7.6 Cooling Down: The Oceans Form 157 11.4 Middle Paleozoic Life 250
11.5 Devonian Mass Extinctions 257
Chapter 8 The Early Earth: The Precambrian 162 Box 11.1: How Do We Know About Transitional
8.1 The Precambrian or Cryptozoic 164 Fossils? 259
8.2 The Hadean (4.56–4.0 Ga):
Hell on Earth 166 Chapter 12 The Late Paleozoic: Carboniferous
8.3 The Archean (4.0–2.5 Ga): Alien World 167 and Permian 264
8.4 Proterozoic Eon (2.5–0.5 Ga): Transition to 12.1 The Late Paleozoic: A World of Change 266
the Modern World 171 12.2 Continental Collision and Mountain-
8.5 The Snowball Earth 177 Building 270
8.6 The Precambrian Atmosphere 180 Box 12.1: How Do We Interpret the Cyclic Deposition
Box 8.1: How Did the Early Earth Not Freeze Over? 181 in the Carboniferous? 276
12.3 The Permian Supercontinent 277
Chapter 9 The Origin and Early Evolution of 12.4 Life in the Late Paleozoic 279
Life 186 12.5 The “Great Dying” 288
9.1 How Did Life Begin? 188
9.2 Polymers and Salad Dressing 189 Chapter 13 The Mesozoic: Triassic, Jurassic,
9.3 Mud and Mosh Pits, Kitty Litter and Fool’s
and Cretaceous 294
Gold 191 13.1 The Age of Dinosaurs 296
9.4 Planet of the Scum 192 13.2 Triassic: Beginning of the Breakup 296
Box 9.1: How Did Complex Eukaryotic Cells Evolve? 193 13.3 Jurassic Tectonics 300
9.5 The Cambrian “Explosion”—Or “Slow 13.4 Cretaceous World: Greenhouse of the
Fuse”? 197 Dinosaurs 306
9.6 Why Did Life Change so Slowly Before the 13.5 The Laramide Orogeny 309
Cambrian? 200 13.6 Life in the Mesozoic Oceans 311
13.7 Life on the Mesozoic Landscape 319
Chapter 10 The Early Paleozoic: Box 13.1: How Do We Know About the Dinosaurs? 322
Cambrian–Ordovician 206 13.8 The End of the Age of Dinosaurs 330
10.1 Transgressing Seas
in a Greenhouse World 208 Chapter 14 The Cenozoic: Paleogene and
10.2 The Sauk Transgression (Latest Proterozoic–
Neogene Periods 340
Early Ordovician) 210 14.1 The Transition to Today 342
Box 10.1: What Do Limestones Tell Us? 212 14.2 Breakup of Pangea 342
10.3 The Tippecanoe Sequence (Middle Box 14.1: How Do We Know that the Mediterranean Was
Ordovician–Early Devonian) 218 Once a Desert? 347
viii  CONTENTS

14.3 The Ring of Fire 349 16.3 Miracles from Molecules 441
14.4 The Hawaiian Hot Spot 352 16.4 A Perspective 445
14.5 North American Cenozoic Geology 353
14.6 Cenozoic Life and Climate 373 Chapter 17 The Cenozoic: The Holocene—and
BOX 14.2: How Do We Know Ancient the Future 448
Temperatures? 376 17.1 The Holocene 450
14.7 Cenozoic Land Life 383 17.2 Climate and Human History 450
17.3 The Anthropocene 454
Chapter 15 The Cenozoic: The Pleistocene 402 Box 17.1: How Do We Know That Humans Are Causing

15.1 The Ice Age Cometh 404 Climate Change? 461

15.2 A World of Ice 406 17.4 The Future of Planet Earth 467
15.3 What Caused the Ice Ages? 412 17.5 The Geological Perspective from Earth’s

BOX 10.1: How Do We Know What Controls Ice Age History 469
Cycles? 414
15.4 Life in the Ice Ages 417 Appendix A: Biological Classification 474
15.5 Ice Age: The Meltdown 419 Biological Classification 474
15.6 Where Have All the Mammals Gone? 421 The Classification of Life 475
Appendix B : SI and Customary Units and Their
Chapter 16 Human Evolution 426 Conversions 506
16.1 The Descent of Man 428 Credits 507
16.2 The Human Fossil Record 431 Index 509
Box 16.1: What Do Genes Tell Us About Our
Relation to Apes? 439
Preface
T he earth is a dynamic planet, always changing and
evolving. Its oceans and atmospheres have trans-
formed radically since the earth was formed 4.6 billion
years ago. Its crust is in constant motion, pulling conti-
nents apart and slamming them together to produce the
great earthquakes and volcanoes. The core and mantle be-
neath are also flowing and moving, causing the changes
in the crust above and in the magnetic field that shields us
all from cosmic radiation. Finally, life on earth is closely
tied to the changes in the earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and
lithosphere. Major changes in the physical environment
of the planet have strongly influenced life (especially dur-
ing mass extinctions), while life itself changes the earth in
ways that occur on no other planet. Life produced the oxy-
gen we breathe, changes the carbon dioxide concentrations
of the atmosphere by storing it in crustal reservoirs like
coal, oil, and gas, or weathered soil, or releasing it when
events remove carbon from the crust. Life controls the flow
of nutrients in the ocean, and transformed the surface of
the land from a barren wasteland to the lush green sur-
face that it is in most places. Finally, humans are intricately
connected to all these cycles and changes, and we would
not be here if it were not for some extraordinary accidents,
such as the extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs and left
the world wide open for our mammalian ancestors. Hu-
mans have now become a force of nature ourselves, wiping
out entire species and ecosystems, transforming the crust,
taking its resources, and now poisoning our own home
with our pollution and destructive patterns of growth and
consumption.
No subject in college brings these points home better
than a survey of earth history. It is the best class to grasp
the enormity of outer space and geologic time and the tiny
part that humans have at those scales, and to better un-
derstand the forces that shape the planet, trigger the evo-
lution of life, and especially inform how we humans view
and exploit our home. That is why a course in earth history
or historical geology is considered a fundamental back-
ground to almost all educations in geoscience, no matter
what the specialty. It is also a great course for a non-major
in geology to take, since it gives you a perspective that you
can get from no other course.
But the nature of how that course is taught, and how
textbooks are written for it, has changed radically in my
lifetime. For most of the nineteenth and twentieth cen-
turies, historical geology was often taught as a boring,
memorization-heavy “march through time”, with heavy
emphasis on memorization of rock units and the names
of index fossils—often at the expense of seeing or under-
standing why these things are important, or what is behind
the events of the earth’s past. It was often called the “Roll
Call of the Ages”. Factual details were often emphasized at
the expense of understanding concepts or the context of
these facts, or seeing the “big picture” of how they all fit
into a broader framework. To paraphrase a famous histo-
rian, “history is just one bloody thing after another.”
That all changed in the 1960s when geology underwent
a scientific revolution known as plate tectonics. At first,
historical geology textbooks ignored the topic, or treated it
as an interesting but controversial idea, and then resumed
teaching the same material in the same old way. All this
changed in 1971, when my friends and colleagues Robert
H. Dott, Jr., and Roger Batten wrote a groundbreaking
textbook, Evolution of the Earth. It was the first to incor-
porate plate tectonics through the entire text, and explore
its implications for understanding events in the earth’s
past in new ways. It was also the first book to take a more
inquisitive approach, asking the questions about how and
why we know things as much as what we know. Instead of
just listing facts and events, Dott and Batten tried to give a
background to understanding those events in context, and
seeing the causes behind them. This approach worked suc-
cessfully for over two decades until Roger Batten no longer
wanted to work on the book, and I was asked to take it over
in its fifth edition in the early 1990s. I was privileged to
work on four more editions of the book, the eighth and last
edition of which came out in 2010.
The Approach of This Book
But the nature of how earth history is taught, and the in-
terests and skill levels of students, have also changed since
the 1960s. Students taking this course today are often less
willing to read a long, densely packed, and detailed book
like Evolution of the Earth, which has become more suit-
able for an upper-level geology major seminar or graduate
student course as taught today. Most instructors, especially
in community colleges, now teach this course to a wider
spectrum of students, many of whom are not geology
majors or not even that familiar with science. With Bob
Dott’s blessing, I decided to start over again and write an
entirely new book with a different publisher to serve the
students who have less of a science background, and don’t
need the long detailed approach found in older books like
x  PREFACE
Evolution of the Earth. Yet I have tried to preserve some
of the best elements of that previous book: exciting, in-
teresting, vibrant writing and descriptions of events and
creatures, and striking illustrations to help those who are
visual learners. This is true especially the timeline dia-
grams at the end of many of the chapters, which our book
pioneered and are now copied by every other book in the
market. Most importantly, I wanted to carry on the Dott
and Batten tradition on teaching “How do we know?” or
“Why do we know?” and explain the evidence behind our
assertions that certain events occurred at certain times and
places. This emphasis is implicit throughout the text, where
I discuss the evidence for certain facts about the past. How-
ever, to highlight important examples, every chapter has
one or more separate boxed entries entitled “How do we
know?” to explain the background behind a certain line
of scientific evidence. Bob Dott taught this subject for over
40 years, and I have also reached my fortieth year of teach-
ing this subject, and we both feel that at the college level,
the most important thing a student can take away from a
course like this is not a laundry list of factoids that they
will promptly forget, but a better understanding about how
things work and why things occur, which they will retain
for the rest of their lives.
There are several themes that run through the entire
book, with detailed discussion in certain key chapters:
1. The enormity of geologic time, and the slow pace of
most geologic change, and its implications for humans;
2. The constant irreversible changes in the earth and life
upon it, and what forces cause these changes;
3. The importance of the interactions between earth and
life, especially in feedback loops and the way that phys-
ical environment controls life, but also life changes its
own physical environment.
4. In an age when science deniers are more powerful in
the United States than they are in any other developed
country, I felt it was necessary to take a strong stand
for science and be clear about what science knows and
why we know it. Thus, the coverage of topics like evolu-
tion and climate change states clearly the evidence for
why these ideas are accepted by over 99% of research
scientists in the country.
Features of This Book
To achieve these goals, the book utilizes some basic peda-
gogical tools:
1. An emphasis on how and why we know certain things
throughout the text, made explicit in the boxed entries
entitled “How Do We Know?”
2. New illustrations and diagrams which emphasize the
events in the context of geologic time, especially the
time scale diagrams at the ends of the appropriate
chapters;
3. A list of “Resources” at the back of each chapter, in-
cluding great books and journal articles for those inter-
ested in further exploring a topic
4. A list of URLs for websites with great animations or
videos about key topics within the chapter, found
­hotlinked in the electronic version of the text, and on
the accompanying website for users of the hard copy
editions of this book;
5. A short summary of the main themes and facts in each
chapter, given in a bulleted list;
6. A list of “Key Terms” for students who need to focus on
learning and defining terminology;
7. A series of “Study Questions” to help the student re-
view the material and think about its implications.
8. Detailed chapters on human evolution (Chapter 16)
and the Holocene, climatic influences on human his-
tory, and the future (Chapter 17), topics often given
short shrift in other books or neglected altogether.
Who Is This Book For?
This book is intended for the introductory level non-major
earth history course, and assumes only minimal exposure
to geology, and only a basic high-school level of under-
standing of science. I have tried to write with a minimum
of jargon, and used the fewest new terms to be learned. In-
stead I emphasized broad concepts and big themes wher-
ever possible. I have tried to paint “word paintings” that
help students visualize the ancient worlds of the past. The
writing is guided by the levels of understanding of science
that I have seen in teaching this topic for over 40 years to
undergraduate students at every level, from Caltech and
Columbia University and Occidental, Knox, and Vassar
Colleges, to several community colleges where I have had
the privilege of teaching. The immediate reactions and
feedback of those students has been my best guide to how
to explain something, and what topics often give the stu-
dent trouble or challenges.
Because this course is now often taken in isolation with-
out a previous class in geology, I have included a brief re-
view of chemistry, minerals, and rocks (Chapter 2) and a
quick summary of plate tectonics (Chapter 5) so that no
student will feel left out. Instructors may choose to skip
those chapters if all their students have already come from
a previous geology course that covered those topics.
Acknowledgments
I thank the many people who read parts or all of this book,
and gave me excellent feedback on how to make it better. I
thank Dr. Linda C. Ivany (Syracuse University), Dr. Bruce
Lieberman (University of Kansas), and Dr. Raymond In-
gersoll (UCLA) for reading nearly all the finished chapters
and making great suggestions for improvement. I thank
Dr. John Valley (University of Wisconsin Madison) for
reading Chapter 7, and Dr. Briana Pobiner (Smithsonian

Institution) for reading Chapter 16 and making sure they
were up-to-date and factually correct. I thank the follow-
ing people for their reviews of the original proposal or the
earlier drafts of the manuscript:
William Bartels—Albion College
Paul F. Ciesielski—University of Florida
Peter Copeland—University of Houston
William Garcia—University of North Carolina at ­Charlotte
Amanda Palmer Julson—Blinn College, Bryan
Christopher Knubley—University of Arkansas, Fort Smith
Julio Leva-Lopez—Lamar University
Ervin G. Otvos—University of Southern Mississippi
Shannon Wells—Old Dominion University
Paul Dolliver—Hill College, Collin College
Veronica Freeman—Marietta College
Keith Mann—Ohio Wesleyan University
John Chadwick—College of Charleston
Kevin Cole—Harper College
Tathagata Dasgupta—Kent State University
David Dobson—Guilford College
Marguerite Moloney—Nicholls State University
PREFACE  xi
Jonathan Sumrall—Sam Houston State University
Peter Voice—Western Michigan University
Cornelia Winguth—University of Texas at Arlington
Thomas Algeo—University of Cincinnati
Takehito Ikejiri—University of Alabama
Jill Lockard—Pierce College
Blaine Schubert—East Tennessee State University
I also thank numerous other anonymous reviewers who
gave valuable feedback at earlier stages of the process.
I thank my original editor, Dan Kaveney, for helping me
develop this project and giving me great advice and feed-
back all the way. I thank my new editor Dan Sayre, as well
as Megan Carlson, Michele Laseau, and Micheline Freder-
ick at Oxford University Press.
I thank Bob Dott for his guidance and support over
many years of teaching this topic, and working together
on our own book. I appreciate that he gave me his blessing
for this project before he passed away. Last but not least, I
thank my wonderful family for their forbearance and sup-
port while I worked long hours on this book over several
years: my sons, Erik, Zachary, and Gabriel, and my won-
derful wife, Dr. Teresa LeVelle. Without them, this would
never have been possible.
 Explanation of symbols used on facies maps, paleogeo-
graphic and paleogeologic maps, and most cross sections.

Conglomerate Granite rocks

Basement rocks
Sandstone
(granite or metamorphic)
Miscellaneous igneous
Graywacke
plutons
Shale Volcanic rocks

Shale and chert Prevailing wind

Paleocurrent orientations
Red beds
in sediment
Carbonate rocks (maps) Inferred ancient ocean
(limestone and dolomite) bottom currents
Evaporites (maps) R Reefs
E Evaporites
Evaporites C Coal

Limestone Faults
(cross
sections) Transcurrent or lateral faults
Dolomite
Thrust faults
Isotopic date
Unconformity N2, CO2, H2O, CO,
CH4, NH3
Zero-thickness line (present limit of strata designated) atmosphere
No free oxygen
Meteor bombardment

Stromatolites

Oldest fossils

Condensation
of solar nebula

Plate tectonics begins

Micro-continents

Oldest
meteorites

Banded iron formations

Oldest rocks
on Earth

ARCHEAN

4 Ga 3
 Oxygenated
atmosphere

Single-celled Diversification
bacteria and Earliest eukaryotes of plants
cyanobacteria and animals

Multi-cellular
life

Gowganda Varangian
glaciation glaciation
Super-
continent Pangea Glaciation

Red beds

Carbonates

CENOZOIC
PROTEROZOIC EDIACARAN PALEOZOIC MESOZOIC

2 1
 Laurentia Gondwana Gondwana Gondwana Tethys Sea

Late Cambrian Middle Silurian Early Late Permian

520 Ma 430 Ma 260 Ma

First
Shelly marine amphibians
Soft-bodied animals
animals diversify

First fish

Single-
celled
organisms

First insects First seeds;

first large
trees and
Land forests
plants

Mass Mass
extinction extinction
Varangian
glaciation
Glaciation Glaciation
Supercontinent
breakup

Taconian orogeny Caledonian-Acadian

orogenies

Sea
level Sauk Tippecanoe Kaskaskia
Sequence Sequence Sequence
Mississippian
Ediacaran Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian Carb
PROTEROZOIC PALEOZOIC

630 542 487 442 415 359

 Pangea
Triassic into Jurassic Mid-Tertiary Present
240-195 Ma 40-25 Ma

Synapsids Mammals

Mammals

Reptiles
Reptiles
Dinosaurs

Amphibians

Birds
Bony fish

Coal swamps Conifers Flowering plants

Mass
Greatest extinction
mass extinction

Glaciation Glaciation

Pangea
breakup Sevier-Laramide
Pangea
orogenies Alpine-Himalayan
Ouachita-Appalachian orogenies
orogenies
Present
sea level

Absaroka Zuni Tejas

Sequence Sequence Sequence
Pennsylvanian
boniferous Permian Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous Tertiary Quaternary
MESOZOIC CENOZOIC

297 251 200 146 66 2

THE EVOLVING EARTH
PART
I
Deciphering The Earth
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past Chapter 1 | The Abyss of Time 4
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
Chapter 2 | Building Blocks: Minerals
and Rocks 18

Chapter 3 | It’s About Time! Dating

Rocks 40

Chapter 4 | Stratigraphy 60

Chapter 5 | Plate Tectonics and

Sedimentary Basins 84

Chapter 6 | Evolution 110

 1 The Abyss of Time

The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so

far into the abyss of time.

John Playfair, 1805

[The concept of geologic time] makes you

­schizophrenic. The two time scales—the one
human and emotional, the other geologic—are
so disparate. But a sense of geologic time is the
­important thing to get across to the ­non-geologist:
the slow rate of geologic processes—­centimeters
per year—with huge effects if continued for
enough years. A million years is a small number
on the geologic time scale, while human
­experience is truly fleeting—all human experience,
from its ­beginning, not just one lifetime. Only
­occasionally do the two time scales coincide.

Eldridge Moores, in Assembling California, by John McPhee

The immensity of geologic time, here shown as a spiral of time

going back to 4.6 billion years ago.
Learning Objectives:
1.1 Summarize the scale and
immensity of geologic time.
1.2 Explain how James Hutton
changed the way people
thought about the age of the
earth and how it was formed.
1.3 List the major features of the
scientific method.
1.1 Deep Time and Immense Space
Most people think of time in days or hours or minutes or, if we wish
to look back, maybe decades or a century at most. Most humans live
no more than 70 to 80 years, and only a few live to a century. Human
events more than a few thousand years ago are considered “ancient,”
and we have a hard time comprehending the world of the Middle
Ages, let alone the lives of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans.
Events more than 5000 years ago seem inconceivable to us.
Contrast this with the way geologists see the world. We routinely
deal in millions or even billions of years. When looking at events
millions of years ago, a few hundred thousands of years either way
is considered unimportant. In most cases, we can’t resolve events of
thousands to hundreds of thousands of years ago. Geologists deal in
immense amounts of time, so huge that writer John McPhee called it
“deep time.” The epigraph on page 4 (from one of McPhee’s books)
captures the essence of the problem of comprehending geologic time.
Humans are accustomed to thinking only in the short term and the
immediate future and have a hard time even grasping the concept of
millions of years. Perhaps an analogy will help. One of the most
famous is to squeeze all 4.6 billion years of geologic time into the
length of an American football field (Fig. 1.2), 100 yards or 300 feet
(91 meters), and one inch is 1.4 million years. On this scale, 1 yard (3
feet) is 50 million years, and 50 yards (half the field) is 2.3 billion
years. When you examine the major events of geologic history on this
scale, the first thing that impresses you is how long the time before
visible fossils (Precambrian time) was and how short the interval of
time is for all the events that are familiar to us. If the kick returner
caught the ball on one goal line, he would have run 88 yards across the
field through all of Precambrian time before the first multicellular an-
imals, such as trilobites, show up—only 12 yards from a touchdown.
Just inside the 5-yard line (less than 5 yards from the goal line) is the
beginning of the age of dinosaurs (the Mesozoic), and the runner
travels to only 1.5 yards from the goal line to reach the end of the age
of dinosaurs, when they all vanished (except for their bird descen-
dants). The entire age of mammals takes that final 1.5 yards, the first
members of the human lineage occur only 8.3 inches from the goal
line, and the Ice Ages begin only 3.6 inches from the goal line. The first
member of our own species, Homo sapiens, appears about 0.3 inches
before the goal line; all of the last 5000 years of human civilization is
only 0.08 inches thick—narrower than a blade of grass. If the chalk
that marks the goal line is just a tiny bit too wide, it wipes out all of
human history.
See For Yourself: Here is another analogy. Let us squeeze the entire
Time Lapse of the
Entire Universe 4.6 billion years of earth history down into a single
calendar year, 365 days in length (Fig. 1.3). When
you divide up 4.6 billion years into 365 slices, then each day represents
12.3 million years. Each hour in this analogy is equivalent to about
half a million years (513,660 years, to be precise), and each minute is
8561 years long. If we start with the origin of the earth as New Year’s
Day, then the first simple life forms (bacteria) do not appear until Feb-
ruary 21. The months roll by, with no life more complicated than
­single-celled organisms, until we reach November 19th when the first
multicellular animals (such as trilobites and sponges) appear. Geolo-
gists call this the “Cambrian Period.” By November 29, we have reached
the Devonian Period, when the seas were full of huge predatory fish
 CHAPTER 1 | The Abyss of Time  7

Modern humans appear (99.99 yds)

Dinosaurs become extinct (98.5 yds)
Rocky Mountains form (97 yds)
Flowering plants appear (96.5 yds)

First dinosaurs (94.5 yds)

Great Extinction (94 yds)
First reptiles (93 yds)
First amphibians (92 yds)
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
First trilobites (88 yds)
First land plants (90 yds)
First land animals (90.5 yds)
First insects (91 yds)
Start zone

End zone
Paleozoic
Precambrian Time (0 to 87 yds) Era
(87 to 95)

Water appears on
Mesozoic Era (95 to 98.5 yds)
Earth’s surface
(11 yds)
Cenozoic Era (98.5 to 100 yds)

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Earliest, bacteria-like
life appears
(22 yds)

Earth is formed Today

(0 yds) (100 yds)

Figure 1.2 The duration of earth history (4.6 billion years) squeezed into the length of an American football field, which is 100 yards
(300 feet) long. Major geologic events shown with their time span represented by the distance from the goal lines.

and the first amphibians crawled out on land, cloaked by the
first true forests.
See For Yourself: The By December 8 we have only reached
History of the Earth
in 5½ Minutes the Permian Period, about 250 million
See For Yourself: years ago, when the earth had a single
Timeline of Earth
supercontinent called Pangea that
stretched from pole to pole and a single ocean that cov-
ered almost three-quarters of the globe. The land was
dominated by huge amphibians the size of crocodiles, a
variety of primitive reptiles, and huge fin-backed relatives
of mammals. By December 16, we reach the Jurassic
Period, a name familiar from a number of recent hit
movies, when huge dinosaurs roamed the planet and we
see the earliest mammals, lizards, and birds. The age of di-
nosaurs ends the day after C ­ hristmas, when catastrophic
events wiped out not only the huge dinosaurs but also
many important groups in the oceans, such as the marine
reptiles. The entire last 66 million years of the age of mam-
mals can be squeezed into the final week between Christ-
mas and New Year’s. The earliest human relatives do not
appear until 7 hours before midnight on New Year’s Eve,
and the earliest members of our genus Homo are found
only 1 hour before midnight. All of human civilization
flashes by in the last minute before the stroke of New
Year’s Eve, so if someone starts celebrating a few seconds
too early, he or she drowns out all of human history.
See For Yourself: Putting it this way is very humbling
A Brief History of
Geologic Time for humans and for our exaggerated
sense of self-importance. We are afterthoughts, very late
arrivals on the stage of earth history, and have not even
been around as long as most species in the fossil record.
The human lineage can only be traced back to about 7
million years ago, while dinosaurs dominated the planet
for over 130 million years. Think about that the next time
you hear someone use the word “dinosaur” to indicate
something that is old and obsolete. We should be lucky
to last as long as most species on the planet. As legend-
ary author Mark Twain put it (with his caustic wit and
sarcasm),
If the Eiffel tower were now representing the world’s age,
the skin of paint on the pinnacle-knob at its summit
would represent man’s share of that age; and anybody
would perceive that that skin was what the tower was
built for. I reckon they would. I dunno.
If the perspective of geologic time was not humbling
enough, consider the immensity of space and our position
in it. We live on but one tiny planet in our solar system, in a
smaller galaxy off in the suburbs of the universe. If the earth
were the size of a pea, the sun would be the size of a basket-
ball, and they would be about a mile apart. If we shrunk the
entire solar system down to the size of a s­ oftball, then our
See For Yourself: Milky Way galaxy would be the size
Earth Compared
to the Rest of the
of the earth. And there are millions of
Universe other galaxies besides ours.
8  PART ONE | DECIPHERING THE EARTH

1 second = 146 years, 1 minute = 8,752 years, 1 hour = 525,114 years, 1 day = 12,602,740 years,

4.6 billion years ago

Precambrian time

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Jan
Hadean time
Feb

Mar Oldest rock on Earth

Oldest
Apr
Archean Era Oldest fossils, cyanobacteria, cells fossil
May without a nucleus (prokaryotes) land
animal
Jun

Jul
Proterozoic Era Oldest fossils, cells with
Aug a nucleus (eukaryotes)

Sep Oldest multi-cellular fossils, metazoans

Oct Oldest fossil fish

Nov Cambrian explosion of life Cambrian Ordovician Silurian Devonian

Dec Permian Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous Tertiary

Devonian (ctd) Mississippian Pennsylvanian Quaternary

Oldest fossil Oldest fossil Oldest fossil Dinosaur Today

amphibian dinosaur bird extinction

Oldest fossil Oldest fossil

* Small font
reptile mammal
are periods
within areas Paleozoic Era Mesozoic Era Cenozoic Era
(orange) (green) (purple)

Figure 1.3 The entire span of earth history rendered as if it were a calendar year, with 365 calendar days representing 4.6 billion years
of earth history and each day representing about 12.3 million years.

As Carl Sagan said,
The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary
human understanding. Lost somewhere between immen-
sity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic
perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant,
even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and
brave and shows much promise. In the last few millen-
nia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected
discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, ex-
plorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind
us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understand-
ing is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I
believe our future depends powerfully on how well we
understand this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of
dust in the morning sky.
heavens (Fig. 3.1). We now know how tiny and insignificant
we are on the scale of space and in the context of geologic
time. It’s a humbling vision, but this is what science has re-
vealed to us. However, there is a flip side to this coin: we are
the only species that has ever been able to see and under-
stand how we got here, and how the earth and universe were
formed. As the great anatomist and paleontologist Baron
Georges Cuvier put it,
Genius and science have burst the limits of space, and few
observations, explained by just reasoning, have ­unveiled
the mechanism of the universe. Would it not also be
glorious for man to burst the limits of time, and, by a
few observations, to ascertain the history of this world,
and the series of events which preceded the birth of the
human race?

We’ve come a long way since the days when we thought that In this book we will look at some of the events that have
the earth was a flat disk in the center of the universe and happened over the past 4.6 billion years. More importantly,
that the planets and the sun moved around us and that the we will examine the scientific evidence for how and why we
stars were just pinpoints of light in the celestial dome of the know these things.
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 As the tide covered the Rock he could be seen in the clear
moonlight ploughing along the creamy surface, stretching his tether
in every direction in futile efforts to escape. At daylight next morning
he was found sheltering under a projecting ledge of rock. What a
clean, well-groomed fellow he looked, with his sleek, glossy coat
glistening in the sunshine, his squat, plump body adapting itself to
the inequalities of the surface on which it rested. His coat, by the
way, as much fur as that of a horse—grey above, mottled with dark
spots, while the under surface is of a creamy yellow. His beautiful
teeth gleaming white against the scarlet interior of his mouth, as he
snapped fruitlessly on either side, suggested the maximum of robust
animal health. As a memento of his visit the camera was brought on
the scene, and another addition made to our list of illustrious visitors.
Liberating him proved to be more difficult than his capture, for
when cut adrift he persisted in facing us instead of making for the
water, towards which we endeavoured to drive him. After some
manœuvring, however, he was driven to the edge of the gulley, but
even with his body half submerged he maintained a defensive
attitude, not seeming to realise that he was at liberty to depart. An
incoming wave, however, moved him to a sense of his position, and
with a defiant snort he slipped under water. Omitting, in his hurry, to
take proper bearings, he took the wrong direction, and, finding
himself in a cul-de-sac, made his appearance again on the surface,
and with a hurried glance at his position again sank, this time making
a bee-line for the outlet, being clearly seen, as he passed under
water close to where we stood, and was last seen buffeting his way
through the foaming breakers, evidently none the worse for his
compulsory detention on the Rock.
 DECEMBER 1902.

The broken stones and other debris, consequent upon the late
alterations here, which had collected in various holes in the Rock
and maintained their position up till now, have nearly all been cleared
out by the severe gales of this month, and a couple of heavy iron
poles, erected lately to mark the boat tracks or entrances to the
landings, and which were sunk two feet in the solid rock and heavily
cemented, have been shaken loose in their sockets by the pounding
seas which have been besieging us of late. The rocks appear bleak
and bare, and utterly void of vegetation. The white whelks have
collected their scattered forces, and gone into winter quarters.
Secure in sheltering nooks, they lie huddled together in close packed
squadrons. Numerous small white banded whelks adhere to the
base of the tower with a tenacity that seems surprising considering
the swirling seas they are subjected to. This species, however, never
seem to dream of hibernating. The eiders and longtails, with an
unswerving attention to business, pursue their calling amid the hurly-
burly of broken, tumbling seas—evidently little concerned whether
the weather be fair or foul—and in the glassy hollows alternating
between the breakers they can be distinctly seen scurrying over the
rock surface like so many fish. Gannets this month are conspicuous
by their absence, and only a few parasitic gulls divide their attention
between the kitchen refuse and the hard won earnings of the eiders.
On several occasions during the month our fog signal was
brought into action through the occurrence of heavy snowfalls. A
silent, feathery fall on shore no doubt has charms peculiarly its own,
but at sea constitutes a very serious danger to the anxious mariner
as he steams at reduced speed through the fleecy curtain, shrieking
his every two minute warning, his vessel’s head scarcely visible from
the bridge. In snowstorms such as we have had of late our lantern
soon becomes plastered up with snow on the weather side,
necessitating constant removal to prevent it from completely blinding
our light in that direction. This is an operation often accomplished
with difficulty, especially when carried out in the teeth of a gale—an
experience somewhat akin to lying out on a yardarm under similar
conditions, only one doesn’t have the lift and ’scend of the vessel to
contend with; yet his grip must be equally as sure, or, as the old salts
phrase it, “Every finger a fish-hook,” on such occasions. Mounting by
an outside ladder to the grated gallery which encircles the base of
the lantern, one is exposed to the full force of the blast, and a firm
grip must be taken to avoid being blown away. Below, the seas in
wild tumult break against the building with a deafening roar, sending
a perceptible tremor through the entire structure with each impact.
Only by energetically hauling on the hand-rail can the slightest
progress be made in the desired direction, the wind’s eye being the
objective point, where possibly on arrival one may find himself
pinned flat to the lantern, like an entomological specimen, by the
force of the wind. The snow removed, the return journey is effected
by simply allowing oneself to be blown gradually back.
While relieving the Bass Rock on our way ashore last relief, a
good opportunity was afforded of witnessing the mode of effecting a
landing under adverse circumstances. On arrival there, it was
considered dangerous to attempt a landing at either of the two
landing places, owing to the heavy sea then running. The landings—
a flight of concrete steps from the water edge to the rocks above—
are situated on either side of a slight promontory immediately
beneath the lighthouse; and as deep water obtains to the rock face,
it will be obvious that similar conditions must frequently prevail at
either landing. The boat being loaded with the necessary stores, and
the relieving keeper on board, an approach was made to within
suitable distance of the Rock. A kedge anchor was then thrown
overboard, and the boat slacked down till within working distance.
The keepers meanwhile had been busy erecting an iron pole or
derrick on the rocks above the position now occupied by the boat,
and which, being slightly inclined seawards, a tackle from its
extremity was drawn by means of a guy-line to the boat, and the
stores hoisted ashore by the keepers in charge of the tackle-fall
above. Seated in a loop of the rope, the relieving keeper was then
hoisted, and his shore-going neighbour similarly lowered. As an
extra precaution, a second boat was sent from the ship to stand by
the working boat in case of accident. Fortunately, however, their
services were not required.
Our final relief here for the year was effected with some difficulty
on the 29th. Owing to the doubtful aspect of the landing, only one
boat was sent ashore instead of two as usual. The fortnightly supply
of coal and water being omitted on this occasion does not, however,
inconvenience us, as a three months’ reserve stock of necessaries is
always maintained during the winter months.
 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1903.

Bright, sunny weather characterised the opening day of the year,

the sea assuming a suspicious placidity quite summer-like in
appearance but for the keen nip in the air perceptible out of doors.
This state of affairs, however, proved but ephemeral, and for the
remainder of the month we have experienced most boisterous
weather. Strong westerly winds occasionally attained the force of a
gale, accompanied with driving seas, which roared and sang a
lullaby scarcely compatible with the shore-dwellers’ sense of
security, but which, strange to say, has a more somnolent effect
upon us than a breathless stillness, though an occasional thumper of
a sea, more forceful than its fellows, demonstrates the stability of our
domicile by imparting a gentle tremor to the entire structure,
awakening in the sleeper a glimmer of consciousness and a hazy
impression of a traction-engine lumbering somewhere in the vicinity.
Our entrance doorway—thirty feet from the Rock—faces south-
west, and is guarded by a heavy double leaved door, which opens
outwards, and held open against the building by means of heavy
brass thumb-snecks. An inner or vestibule door of solid brass is
placed six feet further inwards—the walls here, by the way, being
seven feet thick, tapering to one foot immediately beneath the
balcony, sixty feet higher up. This door is also double-leaved, with
the upper panels of heavy plate glass, frequently obscured by the
strong westerly wind whipping the tops of the seas as they rise in
front, and carrying them souse into the doorway. Standing here
during the prevalence of a gale, the outlook is being constantly
darkened by a curtain of hissing foam drawn across the doorway, as
each sea breaks against the base of the tower, flinging the spray
high overhead. Fifteen miles in front of us lies the Isle of May, with its
castle-like lighthouse crowning its summit, while on a lower level
stands a whitewashed relic—remnant of a time, not so long ago,
when the Island boasted a double light, and electricity had not as yet
usurped sole sway. Emerging from the right of the May appears the
bluff outline of the Bass Rock, while away in the far distance North
Berwick Law cleaves the sky-line. Away to St Abb’s Head, on the
left, the Haddington coast stretches hazy and indistinct, while the
green, grassy slopes of Fife, with the spires of St Andrews faintly
visible, fill in the right of the picture. Laying hold of the man-ropes
suspended in the doorway, and turning to the right, the Forfarshire
coast is seen extending from the Tay in a long unbroken line, with
the snow-clad Grampians towering majestically in the background.
Right in front of us are the smoking stalks of Arbroath. Two
conspicuous white dots in the foreground mark the pierheads, in
front of which an impatient “flaxer” cruises in glorious uncertainty of
ever being permitted to fulfil her charter and deposit her Riga-run
freight on the right side of the bar. This is the panorama from the
viewpoint of our doorway on a clear day, but, as seen of late through
sheets of flying foam, it reminds one of a cinematograph display, in
which the films are far from perfect.
On the first Sunday of the year hundreds of gulls were seen
resting on the surface of the sea, half a mile nor’-west from here,
evidently by their movements enjoying a feast of “fry,” and in all
probability proclaiming the presence of herring shoals. During the
gale of 10th January over a dozen gannets were seen swooping and
diving, presumably at herring. Only with difficulty could we maintain
our position on the balcony, owing to the force of the wind, yet these
birds circled and dived amid the turmoil of wind and water with a
graceful ease and precision that seemed truly wonderful considering
the force of wind they occasionally beat up against, or, as they
turned broadside on, were wafted without the least exertion in the
opposite direction. The first week of February saw hundreds of these
birds back to their breeding haunts on the Bass Rock. From the deck
of the “Relief” steamer lying within a few hundred yards their
movements are clearly seen. Each projecting ledge of the
precipitous cliffs is tenanted by some members of the cackling
crowd, their heads see-sawing from side to side. The birds are
evidently engaged in brisk conversation, a monopoly of which is
certainly not tolerated amongst them, judging by the vigorous efforts
of each to be heard above his neighbour. Probably the new
lighthouse is being discussed in the light of an innovation on their
ancestral rights of possession, and later, as its beams fall athwart
their nursery, tradition may recall man’s former intrusion on their
solitary keep many hundred years ago. No doubt their ups and
downs since last meeting on terra firma are fully discussed, for it is a
curious fact that these birds are rarely, if ever, known to rest on
shore except when engaged in domestic duties. Occasionally a
depraved specimen may be seen floating helplessly on the water, a
victim of his own gluttony, having dined not wisely but too well.
February has been a repetition of its predecessor, cold and blowy,
with excessive rainfalls. In a shallow depression on the higher rock
surface our attention has been attracted to a solitary plant, a
specimen, I understand, of “Himanthalia lorea.” A cylindrical stem
(an inch in length) supports a thick, fleshy disc, about an inch in
diameter. From the centre of this disc three separate branches rise
with their terminals, blunted at first, but which were gradually seen to
bifurcate. This is our “flower in the crannied wall,” and is in its own
way equally as suggestive.
The eiders are occasionally seen varying their diet with a
vegetable course. Seizing the tip of a tangle blade two or three
inches from the surface, they spin round it like a top, till the portion
held in their bill is twisted off and greedily swallowed. No need for
them to evade the gulls while engaged in this repast. It is most
amusing to witness the discomfiture of the gulls as they hurry from a
distance expecting to share in something edible, only to find the duck
negotiating six inches of seaweed. That the white whelk itself is not
immune from enemies was recently brought before our notice, one
being picked up with a long black worm dangling from its mouth. On
withdrawing the worm—somewhat resembling a boot lace—portions
of the deceased tenant followed. Doubtless every organism has its
own particular parasite.
“Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em,
And these again have lesser fleas and so ad infinitum.”
 MARCH 1903.

Traditionally correct, the advent of this month was decidedly

leonine, and its exit as certainly lamb-like; but between these
periods, though a few really beautiful days could be credited to the
latter symbol of peacefulness, the lion was largely in the ascendant.
Borne on the off-shore wind comes the odour of heather—not the
fragrant perfume one usually associates with this sweet-smelling
plant, but the smoky incense consequent on moor-burning—and at
night the higher levels of the coast line exhibit lights which are
certainly not recognised in the Mariners’ Sailing Directions.
Over a score of steam trawlers have been busy in our
neighbourhood all the month. Sunday or Saturday is all the same to
them; they are at it night and day, and the weather must be bad
indeed to detain them in port. Often they are seen passing here
burying themselves to the foremast in the seas on their way to the
fishing grounds, perhaps twenty miles outside of us. The Rock
seems to be a recognised stage in their journey; for, whenever
abreast of it, over goes their log, and a compass course is laid for
the distant banks. Here, far outside the three-mile limit, the presence
of the Brenda or the Minna[1] causes no alarm; and, providing their
numbers are correctly exposed, receive no interference from these
coasting policemen. A few summers ago, one of these same
trawlers, while on her way out from Dundee one Sunday, surprised
us by driving right up on the reef in broad daylight, a hundred yards
from the tower. Fortunately, the sea was like glass at the time,
otherwise the consequences must have been disastrous. The tide
being on the ebb, their attempts to back off were unsuccessful; and
there they remained hard and fast from one o’clock till six in the
evening, when a passing trawler succeeded in towing them off,
evidently none the worse of their brief acquaintance with the Bell
Rock. During their detention, the crew paid us a visit in their boat,
recalling to our mind a story in which a clumsily handled brig, in
coming to an anchorage in a crowded harbour, ran aboard of a
vessel already anchored. Visiting this vessel a few days later, to
apologise for the occurrence, the offender was thus announced by
the steward: “Captain S—— has come on board, Sir.” “Oh, indeed,”
sarcastically remarked the aggrieved mariner. “Has he brought his
brig with him?”
The rocks are this year more plentifully strewn with mussel-spawn
and acorn barnacles than usual; and already the whelks have sallied
from their winter’s sleep, bent on their destruction. Hundreds of
hermit crabs have also made their appearance, notably first in the
deeper pools, but gradually taking up their quarters in the shallows.
Towards the end of the month, a few small spats of paidlefish spawn
were seen deposited in convenient crevices of the rocks. This is
unusually early for “nesting” operations, and engenders hopes of an
early fishing, as the ova is generally the first inducement for the
wandering cod to come within reach of our rods. Numerous clusters
of the wheat-like ova of the white whelk are also seen; but, unlike
that of the paidlefish (lumpsucker)—which may be detached from its
gelatinous fastenings in a solid mass—each egg adheres separately
by its own footstalk. Though the adult “paidles” are only to be seen
here during the period of incubation—the term seems quite
applicable, seeing that the guardian “cock” is always in close
attendance, with his nose thrust into the centre of the mass of ova, at
which point there is always a depression, and frequently a hole right
through it—juveniles are occasionally met with at all seasons; and,
on the first anniversary of their birthday, are seen to have attained
the length of two inches.
Numbers of peculiar looking slugs are met with at present,
somewhat resembling a section of a small orange with the skin
attached. On their upper surface, near to one end, a minute orifice is
seen, through which a small rosette like arrangement is protruded
when at rest, but which is instantly withdrawn when the animal is
disturbed. This is the only visible sign of life in this otherwise inert
object, and is probably its means of obtaining a living. Its under or
ambulatory surface is similar to that of a limpet, without its tenacity,
but with a somewhat similar rate of progression. Another small slug
noticed this month—no larger than one’s finger nail and recalling the
general appearance of the “fretful porcupine,” with “quills” arranged
along its back, and displaying beautiful shades of brilliant blue and
crimson.
Saturday, 14th.—A beautiful warm sunny day, the sea like glass,
dappled here and there with great greasy-like patches peculiar to still
weather. Flocks of eiders, longtails, and gulls appear to be having a
day off, and float listlessly hither and thither, seeming only intent on
making themselves aggressively audible in the stillness, the longtails
piping a shrill treble to the sonorous bass of the eiders, while the
gulls contribute a fairly good imitation of a laughing chorus. Later, the
gulls are seen to bestir themselves, as myriads of small circles break
the glassy surface in their vicinity, betraying the presence of “fry,”
their legitimate food. Pecking from side to side as they float silently
through the shoal, they evidently enjoy the feast thus provided for
them. The sight of the gulls thus engaged apparently reminds the
ducks of their negligence in this respect, and paddling full speed
ahead, they are soon busy diving in the shallower water of the reef.
The longtails push their way right up to the base of the tower, round
which they are seen circling, plucking at the green vegetation
adhering to the stonework, and cackling loudly as they breathe for a
few seconds on the surface, all unconscious of our presence on the
balcony above them. A small piece of coal dropped while they are
still under water causes them to shoot away like startled minnows,
and only when they have put some distance between them and the
source of alarm do they make their appearance on the surface,
evidently much flustered by the mysterious noise. Though a couple
of fathoms deep, their alarm was apparent at the same moment the
coal struck the surface, proving that the sound and not the
appearance of the falling body was the disturbing cause. The end of
the month still sees them in close attendance, but any day now may
witness their exodus. But few spring migrants have come our way
this month, principally a few blackbirds, thrushes, and starlings.

[1] Fishery Board cruisers.

 APRIL 1903.

Warm, sunny weather in the earlier part of the month raised our
hopes of a change of diet, and, coupled with the early appearance of
the paidlefish spawn, our expectations of an early fishing ran high.
On the 8th, the capture of three small cods in “Johnny Gray” track
increased our hopes, and again on the 9th, eight were taken, but
since then we’ve had no other. Cold, blowy weather, with heavy
seas, has rendered all attempts in this direction futile; however, the
attraction—as evidenced by the stomachs of those captured—still
increases, and numbers of bloated paidle “hens,” with their lower
jaws protruding like a prize bull-dog, are seen cruising sluggishly
among the tangles in quest of a suitable nesting place. The nests
this season are unusually small; sometimes they contain as much
ova as would fill a quart pot. Each ovum is a sixteenth of an inch in
diameter, and were all permitted to come to maturity—instead of
becoming food for other fishes as most do—would soon fill the sea
of themselves. “All nature is at one with rapine and war,” and
necessarily so, otherwise we would soon be crowded out of
existence.
Our winter residents, the eiders and longtails, have gradually
disappeared. On the 4th, a representative pair of each alone
remained, but these have now thought better of it and gone the way
of their more sensible comrades. A few gulls, herring, and kittiwakes
hover about, and guillemots and gannets are now common.
The gannets, I am informed by the keepers on the Bass Rock,
commenced laying there on the 11th. The solitary egg these birds
deposit is heavily coated with lime, which, when scrubbed off,
exposes a pale blue surface. This coating is probably the origin of
the fallacy that these birds ensure the safety of their eggs by
cementing them to the bare rock. On the contrary, each nest is
composed of quite a barrow-load of material of the most
miscellaneous description. One of these nests noted on the Bass
this season was seen to have the end of a soft-soap barrel for a
foundation, armfuls of withered grass, dried tangles, bits of rope,
string, cotton waste, and other flotsam and jetsam picked up about
the Rock. Amongst the lining of the nest, pheasant and partridge
feathers were seen, which were certainly not garnered on the Bass.
The harvesting of the withered grass was accomplished between
dark and daylight, and, therefore, unnoticed by the keepers, but the
area of their operations, as seen next day, suggested the presence
of a lawn mower. Thousands of these birds are slaughtered annually
by the St Kildians as an article of diet, and the wonder is, considering
the solitary egg deposited and that three years elapse before the
adult stage is reached, that they continue so numerous.
Dr Wallace, in his “Natural Selection,” speaking of birds in
general, tells us that, if permitted to live, in the ordinary course of
production “in fifteen years each pair of birds would have increased
to more than two thousand millions. Whereas we have no reason to
believe that the number of the birds of any country increases at all in
fifteen or in one hundred and fifty years. On the average, all above
one become food for hawks and kites, wild cats or weasels, or perish
of cold and hunger as winter comes on.”
Myriads of white whelks are now scattered over the Rock surface,
and already patches of mussels and acorn barnacles have been
cleared by their voracity. Their ova, which is to be met with in almost
every nook and cranny, is left to take care of itself. A patch of this
ova is situated in a position which a paidle-hen subsequently fancied
for a nursery, and, scorning all rights of possession, plastered her
ova indiscriminately over that of the whelks, with the result that they
are now under the special care of the guardian “cock.”
A stranded cuttlefish was an object of much interest one evening
this month. What a queer-looking object it appeared, with its eight
long tentacles squirming in all directions, its body a slobbery mass of
animated mucilage. Although only a foot in diameter it required some
force to detach it from the rock, as each of the tentacles is furnished
with rows of suckers on its under side. By extending the tentacles in
front, the animal was able to move along the Rock surface, not in a
jerky fashion, as might be expected, but with a continuous gliding
motion, clearly showing that each sucker acted independently of its
neighbour. If taken hold of, one or other of the tentacles is
immediately twisted round the hand with a tenacity that seems
surprising considering the size of the animal, and one can then
realise to some extent the stories occasionally heard of its giant
relatives of the tropics. Irritated, it appears to have the properties of
the chameleon, flushing through all the gradations of colour in quick
succession, and latterly discharging a jet of fluid of inky blackness.
This resource, however, was utterly useless in the present
circumstances, but, on placing the animal in a shallow pool of water,
its use was at once apparent, for on being touched it immediately
rendered itself invisible by the inky fluid discharged. Frequent
irritation, however, exhausted its stock of ink, and latterly only clear
water was expelled. This expulsion, when effected on the Rock, was
accompanied by an audible murmur. The narrow slits of eyes closely
resemble those of a dog-fish, and the head, with the anterior tentacle
elevated in the air, grotesquely reminds one of an elephant in the act
of trumpeting.
 MAY 1903.

During the first few hours of this month our lantern was the centre
of a twittering throng of feathered migrants. Wheatears, rockpipits,
starlings, wrens, and robins fluttered erratically through the rays or
clamoured in their innocence against the glass, apparently desiring a
closer acquaintance with the source of light. Puffs of feathers floated
away on the easterly breeze as some unfortunate, less discreet than
his fellows, crashed against the invisible barrier. The coming dawn,
however, reveals to the survivors the absurdity of their position, and
ere the light is extinguished they have resumed their journey
shorewards. Frequent fogs occurred in the earlier part of the month,
and during the prevalence of a long spell a long-eared owl was
captured on the balcony and held prisoner for a week, during which
time various samples of our commissariat were offered for his
acceptance without avail. A luckless sparrow, the only one by the
way I have seen here, was then captured and placed at his disposal.
This proved more in his line of business, for on the morning after the
rump and tail feathers alone were left. Next day the indigestible
portions, feathers, etc., were cast up in the form of a compact ball.
Later a thrush was similarly offered, but after a couple of days in
each other’s company remained untouched. It was amusing to see
the spirited attitude assumed by the thrush when in the presence of
his natural foe. Screaming aggressively at the slightest movement of
the owl, he would lunge furiously in his direction, his bill all the while
snapping audibly. The fog having cleared somewhat, both were then
set at liberty.
Another very rare visitor seen here this month was a sheldrake,
which passed close overhead flying south. This is the first I have
seen here, but in Orkney these birds are very numerous and are
there known as the burrow duck, or sly-goose. Sly they certainly are,
as evidenced by a pair which nested regularly within a couple of
hundred yards of the lighthouse at which I was then stationed. A
covered drain was the site annually chosen, the nest being placed
several yards from the mouth, which opened out on a spacious
grassy hollow. The bright brown and white plumage, with vermilion
bill and feet, render these birds most conspicuous objects in an
ordinary landscape; but squatting on a shingly beach, where their
colours harmonise better with their surroundings, their presence is
less easily detected. Frequently I have watched their movements
with a telescope from the lantern, and though no one was stirring
within seeing distance of them, the greatest caution was always
exercised in approaching the nest. Lighting a hundred yards from the
nest, a pretence of feeding diligently was made, though their heads
could be seen frequently lifting in the direction from which intrusion
was to be expected. Gradually circling nearer the nest, passing and
repassing it with apparent indifference, till within a few feet of it they
would then suddenly vanish. The exact moment of their entrance I
was never able to note, as they appeared to assume an invisibility
during the remaining few feet of their journey that was really
astonishing, but which is less a matter of surprise when one has
witnessed the squatting in concealment of a hen pheasant on sparse
grassy ground. Burrow duck is a name applied to these birds from
their habit of nesting in disused rabbit burrows. I have counted as
many as forty young ones following a single pair, while others may
have only three or four juveniles in their train. It is said they do not
scruple to steal the young ones from each other. If alarmed while
feeding among the decaying seaware on the beach, some of the
parents will fly to meet the intruder and endeavour to divert his
attention in another direction, while the others fly seawards, followed
by their callow broods flapping their little wings, while their feet tip-tip
the surface—a veritable walking on the waters.
Just as the rocks were being overflowed the other day, we had a
visit of another bird which is but rarely seen here, namely, the oyster-
catcher. The plumage beautiful black and white, the feet and bill a
brilliant red; the latter, which is flattened vertically, suggestive of a
stick of sealing wax. Though fairly well acquainted with this species, I
never had the good fortune till now to see them in the rôle of limpet
pickers, by which name they are known in some localities. From the
balcony, with the aid of the telescope, his movements were brought
within a few feet of us. Wading an inch or so deep, where the limpets
were probably opening to the influence of the incoming tide, he
appeared to make a judicious selection; then, with a single sidelong
blow of his chisel-like bill, he turned the no doubt astonished mollusc
upside down. Seizing it in his bill, he carried it to a still dry portion of
the Rock, and in a twinkling he had the limpet out of its shell, and
journeying up his long bill to its doom. The tip of the upper mandible
appeared to do the scooping out, while the lower merely acted as a
resistance outside the shell, the operation being performed more
quickly than even the adroit oyster-man turns out his wares on the
half-shell. Though not web-footed nor in the habit of diving, I
remember seeing one of these birds, which had been winged with a
gun-shot, dive repeatedly in order to escape further injury.
On the afternoon of the 16th, two days earlier than last year, a
loud chorus of discordant voices floating to our bedroom windows
announced the presence of a large flock of terns—their first arrival
here since wintering in the sunny south. Screaming and diving, they
appear tireless in the pursuit of their prey, which, with the aid of the
telescope, is seen to consist of inch-long “fry.” How trim and neat
they appear as they cluster on the rocks as the tide recedes, pruning
their feathers and chattering vociferously; the head enshrouded in a
black, glossy skull-cap, the back and wings a bluish grey, the under
parts of unsullied white; the long sharp-pointed scarlet bill tipped with
black in harmony with the legs, and small webbed feet. This active
little bird is also called the Sea Swallow, an alias assumed from its
long narrow wings and forked tail.
The sea has been literally alive with large poddlies this month.
Morning and evening they can be seen “breaking” on the surface in
pursuit of “fry,” splashing loudly in their efforts. Though somewhat
averse to our lure, we generally manage to secure a breakfast. On
quiet, still days, good sized cod are seen prowling over the rocks;
and, though lines were set at low water, they were seen at high
water to pass the temptation with indifference. Fishermen aver that
all fish have times when the most tempting delicacy fails to attract
their attention; and possibly this is the case with those which have
been lately under our observation. Hermit crabs at present are seen
to be carrying spawn; and one which was removed from its shell was
seen to have the spawn so far advanced that, when placed in a
shallow pool, they released their attachment with the parent, and
began life as free swimmers. A small fish of the blenny species,
when taken from the crevice in which the tide had left it, was quite
dark coloured, but when placed in a pool was seen to adapt itself to
the colouring of the bottom on which it rested, assuming a mottled
grey scarcely distinguishable from the pool bottom.
Painters have been busy for the latter half of this month repainting
the outside of the building. Favoured with suitable weather, a
fortnight sufficed for the operation of donning the triennial coat,
which will explain the apparent proximity with which it has been lately
viewed from Arbroath.
 JUNE-JULY 1903.

A close inspection of the flowing tide as it swirls around our gratings

reveals the presence of myriads of minute globular jellyfishes—the
cydippe pileus—said to be the favourite food of the arctic whale,
though one would scarcely expect these bulky cetaceans to thrive or
even subsist on such watery diet. Ranging in size from a pin head to
a walnut, what a gap each mouthful must make in their numbers.
The poddlies themselves are not averse to this form of food, as they
are occasionally seen to disgorge them when landed in our doorway.
The common jellyfish progresses through the water with a pulsating
movement of the entire disc, such movement being termed
“pulmonigrade,” and somewhat resembles the action of an umbrella
being partially opened and closed. The mode of progression in the
case of the cydippe is, however, different, and is termed “ciliograde,”
as the propulsion is effected by means of eight vertical bands of cilia
or minute plates overlapping each other. Each plate having an
independent action of its own, the animal can propel itself in any
desired direction, or, by resting them against its spherical body, sink
to the bottom. In sunshine these animals in their evolutions emit the
most beautiful combinations of colour one could imagine, but “you
seize the flower, its bloom is shed”—scooped up in the hollow of the
hand their beauty vanishes, and only a small spat of inert
transparent jelly remains. Here at present in the Rock pools one may
witness a peculiar phase in the evolution of the jellyfish. Along with
many beautiful varieties of marine vegetation, miniature forests of fir
trees garnish the bottom of each shallow pool. These lilliputian firs,
with their branches no thicker than a hair, are but plants in
semblance, for here is the opening chapter in the life history of the
medusae. Under the lens each fragile shoot is seen to consist of
multitudes of small discs piled upon each other like so many
saucers, each of which will, in due course, detach itself from its
neighbour and enter on its new existence as fully equipped as the
exaggerated specimens frequently seen stranded on our beaches.
Lurking amongst the vegetation in the pools are numerous tiny
spider-crabs, roaming about in search of food. Only by their
movements can they be located, as each bears about with it quite a
luxuriant growth of vegetation, with which I understand all
crustaceans would become invested did they not—ludicrous as it
may seem—regularly attend to their toilet. The “spider,” however,
unable to procure a living by force of arms like his bigger brother,
has recourse to the subterfuge of posing as an innocent patch of
marine vegetation, and by such concealment is enabled to capture
food which would be otherwise unattainable. The females at present
are seen to be carrying spawn. When changing their position in the
pool it is somewhat surprising to see a portion of the plants, which
one has been admiring, suddenly become endowed with the powers
of locomotion, detach itself from the mass, and, ambling leisurely
round the pool, come to rest on the fringe of some other patch with
which it completely harmonises.
During the whole of June, at daybreak and again in the evening,
the sea around us appeared literally alive with large-sized poddlies.
Their continual flip-flop on the surface in pursuit of “fry” could be
distinctly heard from the balcony. Though frequently within reach of
our attempts from the doorway, they failed to appreciate our
invitation to any extent, and only with much perseverance did we
occasionally manage to breakfast at their expense. A few cod have
been taken from the pools at low water. The deepest of these pools
is about a couple of fathoms at low water, and has the reputation of
being a sort of convalescent home, as fish are occasionally taken
there which are in anything but the pink of condition. Fishing there
lately, I hooked a cod two feet long, and was somewhat surprised to
see the feeble resistance it made. On landing it, however, it was
seen to be a most phthisical-looking specimen and in the last stages
of emaciation, the bones almost protruding through the skin.
Needless to state, his life was spared, and the patient returned to his
element. I have frequently seen emaciated specimens of the cod
family, but as they were full grown, fishermen attributed this to old
age, but this was certainly not the case with our catch, it being but
half grown.