Statement by Wilbur A. Nelson

ISSUED BY DEFENSE COUNSEL, STATE OF TENN. vs. JOHN T. SCOPES.

This document is for release when it has become completely a part of the court record. It is accepted by newspapers and correspondents with the condition and explicit understanding that it is not to be published or any of its contents referred to in any way until it is definitely released. It may be amended or changed before such release. In… into the court record it is not in publication.

STATEMENT BY WILBUR A. NELSON,

(State Geologist of Tennessee.)

x( Biography.---Wilbur A. Nelson is State Geologist of Tennessee, president of the American Association of State Geologists, past president of the Tennessee Academy of Science, chairman, Executive Committee Southern Appalachian Power Conference 1923, member of the Executive Committee of the Division of States Relations of the National Research Council, member of the Council of the American Engineering Council, and president of the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly, of Monteagle, Tennessee, the leading interdenominational Chataugua and summer resort in the south, founded 43 years ago, and after September 1st, Corcoran Professor of Geology and head of the department of Geology, University of Virginia and State Geologist of Virginia. He received the degree Bachelor of Science at Vanderbilt University, and the degree Master of Arts at Leland Sanford University. He has held responsible positions with commercial firms as well as in the service of the state. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Geological Society of America, member American Institute of Mining and Metalurgical Engineers, American Association Petroleum Geologists, Seismological Society of America, and other organizations. He has published a number of papers on geological and related subjects, both scientific and of a popular nature.)

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The different layers of rock which form the surface of the earth unfold a remarkable story of evolution. These rock layers may be read as clearly as the leaves of a book, and they are the book which tells the true history of the earth; and the buried remains of animal and plant life which they contain likewise show the rise of life and its development on this earth. All forms of life have changed and developed to meet the conditions which have existed on the earth, as it has developed to meet the conditions which have been developing from the beginning of geological time.

Tennessee is an ideal place in which to study and learn the story of the rock layers which have been laid down, from the