9 



done it well. Needless to say, iu the pieseut 

 time no active volcano reared its head in 

 Britain, but in the bygone ages numerous 

 and furious were the discharges from the 

 molten sea in the nether world, l>oth 

 strengthening the egg-shell crust and stor- 

 ing its increasing thickness with preci )u< 

 treasure for the benefit of man in this 

 present age. It was well to remember that 

 when this jilanet was thrown off the sun in 

 a state of gas all was hot as the sun, and 

 as the gases on tlie outside of the revolving 

 mass cooled, so they sorted themselves out 

 into the various elements. After many mil- 

 lions of years a scum or tliin crust would 

 form on the external parts of the more 

 than wliite hot s]>here, and this skin wou d 

 tend to conserve tlie enormous internal heat . 

 In the course of the ages the crust got 

 thicke.' through more of the molten material 

 coming to the surface and cooling, and in 

 process of time the stratified rocks weic 

 formed through deposits laid down on the 

 scum crust by water, and from materii.i 

 worn down from the igneous rocks first and 

 from other stratified rocks later. This nrn- 

 cess of degradation of the older rocks, both 

 igneous and stratified, had been repeated 

 again and again, and the wreckage had been 

 relaid to form the newer stratified rocks. 

 Mr. Cozens then jiointed to a diagram of 

 geological strata, and said the same order 

 of layers occurred all the world over, and, 

 generally speaking, the crust of the earth 

 was about 25 miles in thickness. Now, witli 

 a jacket so thick, so strong, so heavy, and 

 so strongly set and banded, if there was 

 no escape for the intensely hot gases im- 

 prisoned in the interior, this little world 

 would be in danger of such an explosion 

 that would, with one mighty effort, find re- 

 lief in shivering this floating sphere into 

 myriads of aimless splinters, like the debris 

 of the ring shed by our sun, which never 

 coalesced, and across whose path our earth 

 s])un twice every year, and received thou- 

 sands of its fragments as .shooting star;;. 

 But there was an esca])e, and it was with 

 that he proposed to deal. All hot things 

 shrank in cooling, and large things got so 

 much strain.'d that they cracked. In the 

 gradual cooling of the earth's crust the 

 rocks contracted, and immensely strong and 

 rigid as they were, what would not bend 

 and fold was ground to powder; the eartli 

 got smaller. In every age of the world's 

 existence the hot gases from the heated in- 

 terior found many lines of weakness through 

 the cracked and fractured crust, and follow- 

 ing those lines of weakness, the im]>risoned 

 forces of Pluto— the Homan God of thi' 

 infernal fierv regions — found their way of 

 escape and those " plutonic " rocks, as we 

 called them, came to the surface through 

 such vents, ci-acks and chasms, filling all 

 cavities on their way to the top with their 

 lava streams of molten rock. It was 

 Rffirmed that at a depth of aOff. below the 



surface, anywhere, from the poles to the 

 equator, the temperature was found to be 

 about 50 degrees fahrenheit, and in dee|)er 

 sinkings in wells and mines the tempera- 

 ture steadily increased at the rate of one 

 degree for every 60ft. in depth. Mr. Cozens 

 added that this varied .somewhat, because in 

 some mines it increased by one degree every 

 24ft., whilst in one American mine the in- 

 crease was only one degree each 70 feet. 

 The deepest mine did not exceed a mile in 

 depth, he said, and there it was so hot that 

 men were not allowed to remain long below, 

 but came often to the surface to avoid col- 

 lapse. If the temperature went on increas- 

 ing at the same rate it would be high enough 

 at 10,000 feet to boil water and still deepe-. 

 even to melt rocks. Springs which issued 

 from a great depth were found to be hot, 

 and sometimes thev came as steam instead 

 of water. Hot springs were numerous in a'l 

 quarters of the globe, but especially in the 

 neighbourhood of active or extinct volca- 

 noes. At Buxton was a hot spring always 

 coming forth at about 82 degrees, and at 

 Bath the perpetual hot spring welled up 

 at 120 degrees, and had done for many cen- 

 turies. Many people regarded that hot 

 .spring at Bath as a manifestation of present 

 volcanic activity. As, however, no less than 

 180,000 gallons issued daily from that source, 

 we might well understand how great 

 was the amount of heat of which the earth's 

 crust was relieved by its agency. As this 

 s)iring was constant its action might rao'-e 

 than equal a considerable volcano, which 

 though so much more violent, was intermit- 

 tent. The Bath spring contained in solution 

 various saline substances, principally sul- 

 phates and chlorides, which had quietly 

 liassed out by river aud sea, and had beeii 

 lost to view, but if those solids brought from 

 the interior of the earth during the hist 2,000 

 years since the Romans came and used the 

 .springs, could be collected, they would form 

 quite a respectable cone, equal to many a 

 powerfully active volcano. Eartliquafces 

 and volcanoes were very much akin, sail 

 Mr. Cozens, and earthquake shocks had been 

 recorded in nearly all parts of Great Britain. 

 In 1110 the river Trent had a mile of its 

 bed laid dry. In 1U8 a length of the bed 

 of the river Thames was similarlv affected, 

 -in earthquake in 1185 shook the whole of 

 England, and brought down the CathedrnI 

 at Lincoln. Nor had Canterbury escaped. 

 In 1.382 an earthquake wroueht gieat havoc 

 ill the Citv. The Campanile in the Pre- 

 cincts collapsed, the great west window 

 of the Catliedral and the east window of the 

 Chapter House were "terribly shaken and 

 shattered," and other edifices' in the Citv. 

 particularly the monastery of St. Augrrs- 

 tine's, suffered at the same time. As the 

 Weslffate was built by Sudburv in 1379 it 

 was therefore, at the' time of this earth- 

 quake, only just erected, yet it stood the 

 shock well, ft was intenselv interestiu"- In 



