"THAT PETRIFED HAN"

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2173, 15 July 1889, Page 2

"THAT PETRIFED HAN"

\ " Gfeologist " writes to the .«' Otag( Daily Timeß" as follows ;—- We al thought that the expose of the grea psuedo discovery m a marble quarry o New South "Wales was complete, bw judging from a note m this morning's "Timeß" suoh is not the oase. I have foi a considerable time taken some interest m geology, and I have not yet heard o: any fossil remains, either vegetable 01 animal, being found m marble. The very fact that limestone must have endured great heat, sufficiently powerful tc destroy any suoh remains, before becoming marble, reems to my mind to prove the affair under notioe a hoax. Supposing that it was possible that it was not so, it will be opposed to all hitherto formed ideas of the age of man ; geological scientists having universally eel forth the idea that man is confined tc the very latent geological eras, while marble, is one of the very oldest met* morphio rocks. But the discovery m New South Wales is opposed to all geological experience and reasoning. The very fact that the ignoramus who gave it forth to the world calls it a "petrified man " and not a "fossil remain" is a significant fact. It is a standing joke that someone who discovered a cave with some beautiful stalactites on tho north-west coast announced with full assuranoe that the cave was so many years old, because the limestone stalactites showed rings of yearly growth I Tho " petrified man " of New South Wales belongs to the same class of discoveries, and his supporters should at once be made fellows of the Society of Asses.