08
THE WEST SHORE.
open a fissure in the crust, from a fountain of water to
tho ocean of fire, then the water being suddenly converted
into steam, with not room enough in which to expand,
other shock will follow, attended by upheavals, earth
quake waves and volcanic disturbances. Tlie will con
tinue for a shorter or longer period, and be slight or
heavy, according to the amount of water precipitated, the
size of the fissure and other conditions.
There is another factor lx'loiiL'iiiff to the chain of
causes which produce earthquakes, in my opinion, which
I do not find mentioned by scientists, find yet I think
imjsirtaiit. If I am in error no harm can result from
alluding to it, whereas, if correct in my hypothesis,
science may 1m? Is'iielited. Therefore, I will submit it
fr tho consideration of those who are greatly my
sujK'riors.
Our present ideas of inavitation were siiL'L'ested bv
w
Sir Isaac Newton, who maintained that every atom of
mailer in the universe was attracted by, and gravitated
towards, every other atom of matter, in necordniwe with
certain fixed laws. Kepler and Newton suggested the
uiea oi centripetal and centrifugal forces, the latter force
tending to propel tho earth through space in a straight
line, the former (the attraction of the sun) tending to
l-n.,-,, or uraw, uie earth away at a right angle from the
direction of the latter. These two forces acting concur
rently, the result is tho earth moves in a curve, a sort of
compromise direction, around the center, or sun.
It frequently hapns that the surior planets of our
wlar system arrive n-ar a conjunction with each other
In such a case all tho force of this attraction is exerted to
draw our earth out of her orbit towards them, but fail to
consequence of MK anMp U ovem,me &Q
m-i n aviU,ti,,u truth, the conclusion is
unavonlable that then, is a powerful tension exerted ,x,n
f earths crust The next deduction i, equally Z
r ve-namely. that a cracking of the crust, i, some
I' wber it Is weak, is likely to occur. FiuallvTi!
h, the bonml of m yi
tothe fir and U.en an earthquake results. On several
wvasions I bnve oll that earthquakes havXn
cuIent w.thU.ea.nfigurations of the planet asT
for H,wnUsI, and hvo Uvu smxfu nr
h-iuakea by calculating the tuTo tl Zw
J-- I January. 1S71.SI ntj
. i t zzt M'""if -
in my hypothesis that it is a factor in the great chain of
causes that operate to produce earthquakes..
I have dwelt somewhat at length on earthquakes and
volcanic disturbances, because without a general idea
concerning them it is impossible for the non-scientific
reader to have an intelligent understanding of the tnodut
operandi by which the giant forces in Nature have been
at work on the earth's crust, preparing it as an abode for
man. And this evolution, so sublimely Brand ia t;n
going on.
I have been a teacher for more than forty years, and
have learned that relaxation is of great advantage to
students. So I will indulge in a little intellectual recre.
ation, giving free scope to the wings of fancy, while I try
to picture, in the poetry of prose, how this earth came
into existence.
First, let us take the highway of science and travel
back through the untold eons of time. We are poised in
space near the Pleiades (" seven stars "), in the constella
tion Taurus. Robed fn the brightest garments of imagi
nation, with eyes that are telescopic, having the wings of
an angel, we start from Taurus, fly at the rate of a million
of miles a minute, and yet years must elapse before we
can reach the boundaries of what is now our solar system.
We arrive here. All is void. There is no sun, no moon,
no earth nor sister planet Gas and vapor are every,
where, but solids and liquids nowhere. Millions of ages
More there had been a central orb and its train of
worlds, a heavenly battalion wheeling through space with
a speed that almost defies the power of thought But the
bounds of their existence had been fixed. One by one, as
their hour of dissolution arrived, the planets returned to
the central orb-the parent that gave them birth. As
they impinged uixn her disc them was rannA. flush.
and in the wink of an eye each had been dissolved into
iw original primates, molecules, atoms and gas. Then,
by the operation of an infinite force, a property of the
parent planet, the great central orb was also dissolved,
and we are cazine in imamnAtinn m, th mntr vnM in
boundless space.
hat an awful
telescopic, cannot pierce it No brain can comprehend
. immensity, tsiiently reposing, like the storm forces
before a cyclone.
than a hundred thousand million miles in diameter, floats
in space. Intensely heated by the awful catastrophe
which dissolved the old worlds, aU the metals and min
erals, all the fluids and solids, float lazily in clouds of
vapor. Tliev lmvfl tvn
their heat is still intense.
But now. while w am u: : -.
hng process condenses a single atom. We see it
not, nor can we without the aid of a microscope that
magnifies hundw1a ,j: n ,
Tl i- maiueiers. jonaensauon go
Btora like a celL beim mnifii, l nptena is
termed and slowlv it,o mi. .L
. ' J0W8 8twWy towards it Now we can see it the
mauest speck possible to perceive, It is revolving and
Pwnty. As th windmill rv1. thfl action