344 Ampere's Theory irf the Formation of' the Globe, 



ganese, &ec. ; whilst that which the atmosphere at present con- 

 tains may be only the portion left after all these processes had 

 been completed, or which has been expelled from bodies already 

 oxidized by means of chlorine, or other analogous principles. 



We will not follow M. Ampere in his remarks respecting the 

 manner in which this acid hquid would act upon and modify 

 the contents of the solid strata ; it is sufficient to observe, that 

 in proportion as these events were repeated, the increasing thick- 

 ness of the substratum of oxide would render the communica- 

 tion between the surface and the interior more and more diffi- 

 cult, and consequently bring about cataclysms which, though 

 rarer than heretofore, would, when they did occur, prove more 

 violent. In the mean time, the strata of the earth would be- 

 come fissured more and more by the hcavings up of its crust, 

 and inclined in all directions ; from the irregularities in -its sur- 

 face would result basins, into which the liquid, which the next 

 stage of cooling caused to be precipitated, would find its way ; 

 so that first would emerge a few islands from the midst of an 

 expanse of liquid matter, no longer as before universally cover- 

 ing the surface, and afterwards more extended tracts of land 

 would make their appearance. 



The earth, at this period, might begin to be surrounded by 

 an atmosphere similar in nature to our present one, but in which 

 probably the constituents bore to each other a very different re- 

 lation as to quantity. 



It seems to follow, indeed, from the ingenious researches of 

 M. Adolphe Brongniart, that at this period the atmosphere 

 contained a much larger proportion of carbonic acid than it 

 does at present, a circumstance which, whilst it unfitted it for 

 animal, was highly favourable to the development of vegetable 

 life. 



On the occurrence, however, of every new cataclysm, the sud- 

 den and great elevation of the earth's temperature, which would 

 occur from the chemical action that occasioned it, would put an 

 end for the time to all kinds of organization, and hence we ob- 

 serve in the earth, beds without a vestige of oiganic remains 

 succeeding others richly fraught with such evidences of existing 

 life. 



M. Ampere then proceeds to show the consistency of these 



