The west shore., May 01, 1884, Page 135, Image 11

THE WEST SHORE.
135
rivers of the torrid zone are dead. The Esquimau de
parts for the north pole, and is followed by the whale,
seal, walrus and white bear. -
The frigid zone is now becoming torrid. In the old
torrid the water is boiling. The fish arc dead ia the
temperate zone. In the frigid zone only a few forms of
life survive, all crowded upon the shore of that "open
sea" around the north pole which Franklin, DeLong and
scores of others died without discovering. The heat in
creasing, man dies and the beasts all perish. The birds
go with them. Reptiles and insects swarm in countless
millions for a brief season and finally disappear. The
plants are all gone, the ocean boils at the frigid zone and
our earth is a desert
Now how grand the spectacle I All the waters are
boiling, great clouds of steam obscure the rays of the
sun, the dry land is on fire, and the whole earth seemB
convulsed. All the water has been converted into steam.
Great beds of salt, hundreds of feet deep, repose on
what was the beds of the ocean. The oil in the earth
boils and is driven off in vapor. Now it catches on fire
and the lurid flames add to the glory of the improvised
Hades. The brimstone melts, the coal burns, and its
carbon is transformed into carbonic aoid gas. Not even
a ghost could live near the surface.
" The rocks melt with fervent heat" The metals are
boiling and evaporating. Quicksilver is first to vaporise
and rise; then lead; then copper; then iron; then gold
The mountains are all cremated and dissolved. The
earth is a mass of molten matter, surrounded by an
atmosphere thousands of miles in thickness. And now
nothing remains of our beautiful earth, our glorious
Northwest, but nebulous matter.
From this episode we return to a contemplation of
our planet when the crust had finally formed above the
great ocean of fire. An intense cold will cause the ice to
crack open, in consequence of its shrinking; so also the
crust of the earth shrunk and cracked open. Its weight
pressing down upon the molten matter caused it to pour
forth upon the surface of the crust, heaping up ridges as
it cooled. Some idea may be formed as to the length of
time necessary for the cooling of the molten matter into
cruBt by considering how long it requires the lava of a
volcano, even in a small body, to cooL
Ten years after an eruption of Mount JEtna the lava
was in slow motion. More than a hundred years ago
there was a mass of lava ejected from Jorullo, in Mexico,
sixteen hundred feet thick, which is not yet cool. Trav
elers thrust their canes into the crevices and the heat will
char the ends of them. How long, then, was the earth in
cooling down so as to float a crust of rock uixm its sur
face? Count a million of years for every star you can
see in the heavens and your estimate will still be too
smalL . But it cooled, nevertheless, and a hard, black
floor was stretched around the earth, its desolation and
monotony relieved only by numerous volcanic months
that continually poured out floods of lava. It is a strange
world, with a mixture of beauty, of desolation and of
grandeur. ,
Thon it was the groat foundations of our planet were
laid. It was then that the azoic age may be said to have
dawned. ("Azoio," from the Greek o, without, and zoc,
life; the azoio age was bofore tlioro was any life on the
c&iUi.) Science Las not yet boon able to establish the
line between the zoio and azoio. The early geologists
fixed its boginning with the commencement of the igno
ous era, and its ending with the beginning of the silurian
age. But modern geologists demonstrate that there waH
life in what was termed the azoio ago, and f uturo observa
tions may carry the ending of the azoio back into the
igneous. I will, therefore, simply romark that Iwlow tlio
silurian ore found the gronitio and motainorphio rook.
Tho granite is composed of quartz, feldspar and mica
as the principal ingredients, with no appearance of layers.
It is granular and crystalline. It does not indioato
cleavago, yet may bo split in any desired direction. Tho
granite is so common for building and othor purposes
that the roodor will hardly roquiro any minute dosorip
tion conenrning it Geologists plaoo tho granite as lowest
in the earth's crust, having been produced by tho cooling
of the original liquid fire. It is tho underlying rwk of
the globe, and henco a "primary formation." (I shall
speak of tho "secondary formations" horoaf tor.) There
is good reason to conclude that granite can lo found at
any place by digging doep enough. Thorofore it may
seem strnngo that it is found, in the present ago, on the
tops of the highest mountains. All this will bo explained
as we progress.
The reader must procood slowly, reflecting carefully
upon every statement, or he will Imj led into error. If
granito is the oldest, it is also tho youngest of all rocks.
The process of tho cwliiig of tho earth has never boon
arrested. Hence granito has always loon in process of
formation and is still being formed. During all the
geological periods of tho past the granite has boon form
ing on the surface of tho liquid fire.
The motainorphio rocks wero formed next alovo the
granito. Motainorphio is from tho Greek mvlamorjthog,
which moans "to transform," and I will explain why
those rocks are so called.
In imagination we look "ln our planet after tho
formation of the granite. Tho atmosphere has cooled
sufficiently to allow of current of air, some of which are
colder than others. Drivon into one of theso colder cur
rents, the clouds of vapor are condensed and there is a
rainfall. The water then must have contained a largo
proportion of sulphuric acid, the dissolving power of
which is much greolcr thon the combination of oxygen
and hydrogon. The fall of tho rain, tho flowing uf the
water along tho granitic crust, and tho dissolving action
of the sulphurio acid, wore down tho hhV, separating the
ingredients feldspar, quart and mien. Thus tho rivers,
bayB, lakes, seas and ocean woro formed. The crust
being thin, tho heat intenso, vnHratton was rapid and
rainfalls freqnont Tho detritus (worn-out rwk) was
carril down by tho rivers and deposited in tho low
places on tho lxl of tho owon.
From the detritiu was formed a now chum of rocks.
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