Bill Bryson Chapter Five

Quote: " At least today we can bring some sophisticated dating techniques to the table. For most of the nineteenth century geologists could draw on nothing more than the most hopeful guesswork. The frustrating position then was that although they could place the various rocks and fossils in order by age, they had no idea how long any of those ages were. " Comment: I really like this quote because it has a lot of information that is condensed into one sentence and for me it summarizes the reading which is really interesting and confusing at the same time. So, having found this quote made me see all the important things that were important back when geology was first discovered. Reading about how geology was first discovered was fascinating to me because everything Hutton proved about Earth and how it was made, was really overwhelming and made all the more sense when put into practice back in the time that they were living in. It's just beautiful to see how our way of living and certain practices are changing very quickly and becoming more and more efficient. Connection: The only connection I have with this is the interest in geology because it's a very interesting subject to learn about and see how it has evolved with time. While reading about the many obstacles that Hutton had to overcome to have people believe in what he said about Earth was very inspiring because he never gave up and always kept trying to prove his theories to make sense of everything. Question: Why didn't they publish Hutton's last book?