48 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



of the earth became more deeply corrugated, the hills 

 becoming higher and the ravines deeper. The basins 

 of lakes, seas and oceans were formed, and steadily 

 were filled with water flowing from great mountain 

 chains. The heat of the sun converted more or less 

 of the stagnant water into vapor, which by winds was 

 driven in clouds to the highlands to be condensed into 

 rain, again to descend in streams to the sea. The flow 

 of water in rills and rivers wore furrows in the rocks, 

 and triturated the disintegrated masses into sand, the 

 basis of soils. Frost helped in the denuding and pul- 

 verizing process, and a condition favorable to the in- 

 troduction of organic life appeared here and there. 

 The waves of the seas eroded the shores, and chemical 

 activities lent their aid in decomposing the hard rock 

 constituting the earth's crust. 



Finally, near the poles of the earth, where the 

 cooling processes had rendered it possible for plants 

 and animals to live and thrive, there they first appeared. 

 The coal beds of Disco bay reveal the fact that gigan- 

 tic ferns once flourished in that high latitude, and the 

 mammoths of Siberian ice indicate that the food of 

 such creatures once grew as arctic flora. Although 

 much thus far offered is the merest conjecture, there 

 are facts enough to found rational conclusions upon. 

 A history of the evolutions of the earth is the hypo- 

 thetical story of kindred planets, and possibly of all 

 celestial bodies. That the earth will remain much as 

 it is for cycles of time there is no rational doubt, but 

 a collision with some mysterious moving body unseen 

 in sidereal space is also possible. In the unfathoma- 

 ble future, some unaccountable cataclysm may occur, 

 converting this solid sphere into a "puff of smoke," 

 or into a state either gaseous or nebulous. 



