172 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION. 



While we deny that there is a general oceanic circula- 

 tion, such as Dr. Carpenter describes, we admit that the 

 condition of the water and the position of the land, may, in 

 many instances, be such as to induce currents, that, from a 

 superficial examination, may lead an observer to suspect they 

 form part only of one general movement. 



It may be asked, how do we account for the extreme coldness 

 of the deep waters if it is not caused by the Polar currents 1 

 We answer by asking and answering another question. What 

 causes, or how do we account for, the coldness of the Polar sea ? 

 If the conditions for causing coldness are the same on the sea- 

 bed at the Equator, and in the Arctic ocean at the Poles, there 

 is no necessity for the supposition of a current at all. This we 

 endeavour to show. 



The gases expelled from the interior of the earth are mostly 

 mineral in character. As the earth is a magnet, its gases, are 

 given off principally at the Poles. Ice and snow being composed 

 largely of mineral substances, are therefore caused by the mineral 

 emanations from the Poles of the earth combining with suitable 

 vegetable particles of the water. (This mode of ice formation 

 accounts for the granulated, and not stratified character of ice- 

 bergs.) But these mineral emanations are not confined to the 

 Poles, they are exhaled all over the earth's surface, and wherever 

 we find a place free from vegetation, or the influence of vegetable 

 gases, there we may observe it more particularly. Thus the tops 

 of high mountains are cold and covered with snow, while in the 

 depths of the sea where no vegetation exists, and the warmth of 

 the sun does not reach, we also have the cold mineral exhala- 

 tions acting upon the salt water, and producing the so-called 

 Polar current. 



