76 Kansas Academy of Science. 



southern heavens, for the reason that our south magnetic pole 

 which would be attracted by it is positive. For this discussion, 

 however, the author will suppose that this central magnetic 

 center is situated in the northern heavens nearly in line at 

 present with Polaris, and around this center our sun, in con- 

 junction with the universe, is making his grand journey. 



Now, the sun's orbit is not an exact circle, but, like all the 

 orbits that have been traced out, it is elliptical. Again, when 

 the sun reaches the point in his orbit nearest the great center, 

 at which point he probably is near now, for reasons which 

 will be given hereafter, his axis together with the axis of 

 his attendants must incline more and more as he advances 

 from said point in order to still keep in line with said great 

 mag-netic center, as they do now; and should our system ad- 

 vance in space to or even beyond Vega before making the turn 

 in his journey, it is not beyond the possible that the earth's 

 axis will then be inclined 30 degrees to the plane of its orbit 

 in order that its magnetic axis still be in line with said mag- 

 netic center. To this, of course, astronomers and geologists 

 will object by saying that no such change in the inclination 

 of the earth's axis due to said cause has been detected. As 

 answer to the above, may it be sufficient to say, as Mr. Todd 

 says (see above) , that though the solar system has been ob- 

 served to be moving in space since the early infancy of our 

 race, yet so vast is its orbit that no deviation from a straight 

 line has been observed it would be impossible as yet to detect 

 any change in the inclination of the earth's axis due to said 

 cause? Nevertheless, if the sun does move in space, the axes 

 of our earth, the other planets and even of the sun himself 

 must change their angles of inclination, as a simple experiment 

 will show. 



As the earth's axis becomes more and more inclined, after 

 the sun reaches the nearest point in his orbit to the. great 

 center while he is making his grand journey toward Vega, the 

 arctic and antarctic circles will advance toward the equator 

 till the frigid zones will reach from 60 degrees or even less to 

 the poles, instead of 66V2 degrees as now. This greater in- 

 clination of the earth's axis will cause a greater difference of 

 temperature between summer and winter and between the 

 equator and the poles than now exists, which Croll says is of 

 itself sufficient to produce a glacial epoch; but we will go 3 



