Esmark on the Geological History of the Earth. US 



or annihilated, and that a burnt body is a body combined with 

 a certain quantity of oxygen ; then, since all sorts of minerals 

 are composed of particular kinds of earth, combined with a cer- 

 tain proportion of oxygen, our globe must, at certain times, have 

 undergone a state of combustion. This agrees entirely with its 

 present constitution ; and as it appears that comets, during the 

 time of their perihelium, undergo decompositions and combus- 

 tions, we may conclude, that the earth, during one or several 

 perihelia, has passed from its fluid to its present, as we may call 

 it, burnt state. Its original fluidity can scarcely be denied ; 

 but the fluid substance of which it was composed, and in which 

 all other things were dissolved, cannot have been of the same 

 nature with our present water, which is incapable of holding 

 such a multitude of mineral bodies in a state of solution. We 

 are therefore entitled to conclude, that, at the time when the 

 solid masses of the globe were decomposed, the fluid medium 

 which held them in solution was also decomposed and converted 

 into a different character. The peculiar fluids found in cavities, 

 in rocks and minerals, may, when strictly examined, give us 

 some information as to the original fluid in which the matter of 

 the strata was dissolved. During this state of combustion, an 

 immense quantity of light must have been disengaged, as we see 

 takes place with other comets at the time of their perihelium. 

 As we find thus, that both fire and water have acted a part 

 during the period of the earth's first formation, we may, in this 

 manner, without inconsistency, combine the two opinions which 

 have been opposed to one another on this subject. 



And now, with regard to the other part of Whiston's theory, 

 he assumes, that, during the period of its aphelium, the earth 

 was covered with ice and snow. At first view, it seems not 

 likely that we should be able to exhibit any proof of this. But 

 besides its extreme probability, we shall find actual proofs that 

 the earth has been covered with ice and snow. In our own 

 Norway, so rich in geognostic phenomena, there are to be 

 found unquestionable proofs of this. In reading geognostic 

 and other works, containing descriptions of particular countries, 

 we rarely meet with observations, from which the authors were 

 led to draw this conclusion. Sir James Hall, in his remarks 

 on the changes on the surface of our planet, and on the huge 



OCTOBER DECEMBER 1826. H 



