A RAY OF LIFE. Go 



CHAPTER 



A KAY OF LIFE. 



DURING the progress of that primeval age which wit 

 nessed the war of elements that I have already 

 sketched, there was little opportunity for the unfolding 

 of organic existence. The atmosphere was unfit for respi 

 ration ; and the waters, if not too highly heated, were nev 

 ertheless charged with impurities destructive to both veg 

 etable and animal life. It was a dreary and monotonous 

 age, with nothing of that which now beautifies and diver 

 sifies the face of nature. The same sunlight fell upon the 

 heaving waters of that tenantless and gloomy sea, and the 

 same tide-wave performed its everlasting circuit round the 

 globe. There was little diversity of weather or climate. 

 The continents and mountain ridges, which give birth to 

 oceanic and atmospheric currents, had not yet appeared 

 above the wave. But there must have been a succession 

 of seasons. The winter s sun, as now, went early to his 

 couch, and his tardy rising belated the December morn 

 ings. His unequal favors to the different latitudes neces 

 sitated the trade winds and the great equalizing currents 

 of the ocean. The higher density of the primeval atmos 

 phere rendered it more retentive of the solar heat, and 

 thus contributed greatly to diminish the rate of terrestrial 

 cooling by radiation into space. Evaporation proceeded 

 at a rapid rate, and condensation and precipitation were 

 correspondingly copious. It was probably a stormy pe 

 riod, like the showery season which succeeds the protract 

 ed storm of the vernal equinox. 



