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The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

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264<br />

EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST<br />

occurred in Siberia as the result <strong>of</strong> dust produced <strong>by</strong> massive<br />

outbreaks <strong>of</strong> volcanism, would cover a considerable area,<br />

enclosing the animal remains. Later, if the ice sheet developed<br />

enough to move <strong>by</strong> gravity, the upper layers would<br />

move, leaving a stagnant layer, at least in some places, to pro-<br />

tect the animals, and only at the remote fringe or at high<br />

points <strong>of</strong> the area would the now moving icecap containing<br />

its load <strong>of</strong> rocks and pebbles be continuously in contact with<br />

the ground. In Siberia the icecap, if there was one, never<br />

grew thick enough to move <strong>by</strong> gravity. In North America,<br />

on the other hand (at an earlier time), the icecap did grow,<br />

until it began to move.<br />

So we may conclude that the animals contained in the<br />

great North American icecap were mostly living, at the time<br />

they were overwhelmed <strong>by</strong> the snow, in the places where<br />

they are now found. It would not be wise, <strong>of</strong> course, to exclude<br />

entirely the transportation <strong>of</strong> animal remains in the<br />

ice sheet; very certainly it occurred, and perhaps quite <strong>of</strong>ten,<br />

but in all probability the vast majority <strong>of</strong> the animals were<br />

in the stagnant ground-contact ice. We have seen that the<br />

animals represented in the collection in the glacier indicate<br />

a temperate climate, like that prevailing in New York State<br />

today. Now the final question is, How did these millions <strong>of</strong><br />

animals, living in a temperate zone, get caught<br />

in the ice<br />

sheet?<br />

Note that here there is no dispute about the climate at<br />

the time the animals were living. Here the situation is free<br />

from the uncertainty surrounding the exact climate in which<br />

the Beresovka mammoth lived. <strong>The</strong> animals listed above are<br />

sufficient in themselves to establish the fact <strong>of</strong> a temperate<br />

climate; however, there is an additional piece <strong>of</strong> evidence,<br />

in the form <strong>of</strong> a quite fascinating botanical analysis <strong>of</strong> the<br />

contents <strong>of</strong> a mastodon's stomach. Hartnagel and Bishop<br />

quote from a report <strong>by</strong> Dr. J. C. Hunt:<br />

<strong>The</strong> remains, both <strong>of</strong> cryptogams and flowering species, were in<br />

abundance. Stems and leaves <strong>of</strong> mosses were wonderfully distinct in<br />

structure, so much so that I could draw every cell. I even readily de-

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