Statement by Wilbur A. Nelson

Nelson---3.

soil, and of deposition of this transported soil through rivers into some nearby sea or ocean, takes place so slowly, as time is generally measured, that we can only see through detailed and scientific observation the results within our own lifetime. But at the delta of the Mississippi River, this very process is taking place so rapidly that any one can easily measure it year by year and can understand that these same processes have been taking place through all geologic time, and in each and every part of the world.

We also know that practically all of the earth has at some time or other been covered by water, and in these ancient seas, life has existed, which has left its record to us in fossil form. It must, however, also be understood that large parts of our present water areas were at some period in past geologic time also land areas. These seas have come and gone over limited areas of the earth’s surface many times during the geologic history of the earth.

We know that originally the mouth of the Mississippi River was near Cairo, Illinois, and that all of the Mississippi Valley, as we now know it, was at that time (which was the close of the Cretaceous Period) a part of a much larger Gulf of Mexico, than the one that now exists. All of West Tennessee, during this time, was in a northern extension of the Gulf of Mexico, and the fine china clay deposits of that section were laid down in shallow water at the time tropical plants flourished in that section,

East Tennessee is made up of many layers of rocks, limestone, shale and sandstone, all of which were likewise laid down under water, and many of these layers contain the remains of animal and plant life. Some of the oldest rocks which contain animal life are found in East Tennessee. They are known as Cambrian rocks, and in these rocks occur the first abundant remains of