356 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. Ch. XIX. 



nent. Whether this he so or not there can he no doubt 

 that at the melting away of the ice of the glacial period 

 there was an enormous change in the strains on the 

 earth's crust. Ice that had been piled up mountains 

 high at the poles and along the chain of the Andes all 

 through tropical America melted away and ran down to 

 the ocean beds. This great transference of weight could 

 not have been accomplished without many rendings of 

 the earth's crust and many outpourings of lava and vol- 

 canic outbursts. Let us reflect, too, that not only was an 

 enormous mass of matter, before lying over the poles, re- 

 moved nearer the equator, and many mountain chains 

 relieved of the ice of thousands and tens of thousands of 

 years, but that there must have been an actual change in 

 the earth's centre of gravity. For all our experience 

 shows that the ice was more developed on some meridians 

 than others, that it probably nowhere in the whole world 

 lay so thick as along the American continents, and every- 

 where it must have been greater over the land than over 

 the sea ; and when it assumed its liquid form, and arranged 

 itself freely according to its specific gravity, the centre of 

 gravity of the earth must have been more or less changed. 

 All who have studied the present statical condition of 

 the earth's crust will readily admit that such a change 

 might produce greater volcanic outbursts than have ever 

 been known in historical times. 



Then when we turn to the most ancient traditions of 

 the human race in both the old and the new worlds, and 

 find everywhere fire and water linked together in the 

 accounts of the great catastrophes that are said nearly to 

 have annihilated the human race, I for one am inclined 

 to accept them, and to believe that when, in the " Loo 



