2 | HISTORY |
In our limited world the investigators have explored the beds of ancient rivers, lakes and seas; the caverns of rocks and mountains, and penetrated deep into the earth in search of knowledge that may be derived from rock formations, animal and vegetable fossils. These to the scientist reveal much of the story of earth's growth; its stages of development; its desolations and changes through the agencies of fire, water and air. In these reservoirs have been found keys to earth’s prehistoric changes. They reveal to the student a history of its geological growth, vegetable and animal development for millions of years before written history begins. Scientists explore every known country, every island of the ocean, examine rocks, clays, gravels and fossils in pursuit of knowledge of the past. From these they read much of the story of the earliest formations, convulsions, growth and population of the earth with almost as much certainty as though the events had been inscribed in legible characters on imperishable tablets. If is from these evidences that we learn some of the history of the remote past, relating to the land we live in, which men have named Iowa.
Professor Samuel Calvin has well said: