ESSAY-REVIEWS 673 



Something like half of an ordinary textbook of geology, M. Belot points out, is 

 taken up with the work of water in its various forms. But geologists have not, he 

 maintains, concerned themselves with the question, " Where and how did the 

 constructive action of water on the Earth begin ? " And he sets himself to solve 

 the problem. It began, he believes, with a great Deluge in which nearly half the 

 waters of the ocean descended on the South Pole of the Earth. Hence it proceeded 

 as a mighty flood towards the North. To get this great Deluge, we start with a 

 nebulous mass which has condensed sufficiently to have a liquid core in an atmo- 

 sphere containing, among other things, all the waters of the globe. This core has 

 a motion of translation in its atmosphere, and as a consequence of this, and of the 

 general physics of the situation, a hollow is formed at the North Pole, and a pro- 

 tuberance at the South. The latter cools first, and a solid crust is formed on it. 

 The motion of the core in the nebula, etc., determines that when the temperature 

 has sunk below the critical temperature of water (364 ) the Deluge shall occur at 

 the South Pole. As it rushes in a mighty flood northwards it tears up masses of 

 the already solidified crust and bears them along. As the velocity lessens, some 

 of the masses are deposited. These form barriers at which the waters divide 

 V-wise, and in the widening areas behind them the land masses are built up by 

 deposition of sediment. Hence the tapering of the land masses towards the 

 south. But the waters descending at the South Pole are heated again by contact 

 with the hot Earth, and as they go north ascend as vapour. So the circulation 

 goes on, the heated waters falling chiefly at the South Pole. And it is interesting 

 to note that to-day the South Pole is colder than the North, and that some of the 

 water of the southern hemisphere flows into the northern as part of the equatoria 

 current. One suggests that the South Polar showers gradually, in the course of 

 geological ages, extended themselves so as to fall over the entire globe, and that 

 the amount of water flowing from south to north gradually diminished, leaving 

 only these present traces of a former state of things. And if we suppose that 

 other agents of geological change were equally magnified in the past we are in a 

 much better position to explain the phenomena presented by the rocks of past 

 ages. Present-day forces do not explain the geological past. " It is vain," says 

 M. Belot, "to seek in present-day phenomena the equivalent of those of the past, 

 entirely different not only in quantity but in nature." So we reach the inevitable 

 conclusion that the rate of rock formation must have been much more rapid in the 

 past. " It is then," says our author, " the intensity of erosion (and not time) which 

 has accumulated the enormous thickness of sediments of Primary age of which the 

 duration must thus be much shortened." 



As assistants to the great Deluge in shaping the Earth, M. Belot brings in 

 three small satellites, which, he says, can be proved to have revolved round the 

 Earth near the equator. These consisted largely of water, and when they fell to 

 the Earth at three different geological epochs would be potent influences in 

 modifying the Earth's crust. They would, one suggests, increase the temperature, 

 as well as speed up the rate of rock-making. Possibly we have in them the vera 

 causa of certain puzzling changes of climate familiar to geologists. They would 

 also act as revivers of seismic and volcanic activity. 



Among other things it is claimed that the great Deluge explains the universal 

 crumpling and contortion of the Archaean rocks. The mighty rush of waters 

 would, it is said, heap up the sediments in this way. And the fluid inclusions in 

 granite rocks also receives a reasonable explanation. According to Dr. H. Sorby, 

 the inclusions in certain granite rocks indicated a pressure which showed that they 

 must have been formed at depths of from 5 to 1 5 miles. The new view enables 



