452 Real and supposed effects of igneous action. 
were pushed so far as to lead philosophers to suppose the 
ocean to be frozen at a certain depth, which perhaps would 
account for the vast masses of ice, of all figures and dimen- 
sions, that the currents bring from the north, along the coast 
of Newfoundland, during the end of February, and the 
month of March, at least three months before - breaking 
up of the winter it those latitudes, for which I could not as- 
sign any feasible cause. The diameter of the ath at the 
poles being less than at the equator, brings the imagined 
central mass of melted metal nearer to the poles, with its 
perpetual radiation of molecules of heat, which would pre- 
vent the freezing of the earth to the depths, as experienced 
by Hearne and other travellers, who found it difficult, even 
in summer, to prevent water from the earth being frozen at 
the depth beyond the sun’s influence ; how could this ema- 
nation of heated minerals proceed all in the direction of the 
equator, and avoid the nearer surface for escape at the 
poles 5 certainly not on the principle of radiation. 
_ Voleanic eruptions aeltted out of such a fluid mass, re- 
volving and mixing up all rts for such a 
great period of time, ought to Shee pega its constant 
motion, some homogeneity in its composition, which is con- 
tradicted by the variety of materials thrown out; no two 
eruptions being exactly alike, and the eruptions of water and 
ers being so easily accounted for, on the supposition: of 
the diminution of combu stibles, and of course of heat, and in- 
crease of water in the cavities, made by the ejection of lava; 
where in this vortex of melted metal could either water or 
ations, which although they take an extensive range, yet cam- 
~ go beyond ideas procured through the medium of our 
; itis probable that nature has many ways of acting 
that our short lived experience has not yet brought us ac- 
quainted with, for it is only yesterday that we were capable 
either of observing or registering the natural phenomena, 
tobe examin much as vag have lately done, an immensity remains yet 
to be examin 
