ABSTRACT
In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis one may read how the dry land emerged from the oceans and became populated with plants and animals and how, ultimately, man appeared on the scene to use the landscape for his own purposes. Although it has now been demonstrated that all this did not take place within the space of a mere seven days, it is clear that the ancients of Babylonia had a clear and almost inspired vision of the general order of world evolution. As the initially hot earth cooled down, one of the gases in its atmospheric envelope began to condense and liquid water accumulated on the lower portions of the surface of the globe; the higher portions remained above water-level. The oceans and continents thus came into existence. The remaining atmosphere continued to circulate around the earth, abstracting water from the oceans and depositing it on the continents as rain. The sun shone between the rains and warmed the land surfaces. In this warm, moist and relatively stable environment, terrestrial plants and animals evolved and multiplied. The plants rooted themselves firmly in the weathered surface of the land and their dead remains supplied it with organic material. True soils thus came into existence.
