MATERIAL UNIVERSE. 41' 



would have awaited thee ! As one who finds 

 himself upon an ice-clad ocean, hundreds of 

 miles from the shore, and suddenly finds it 

 breaking up around him, while between are 

 gushing forth torrents of liquid fire ; arid sees 

 his only foothold separated from its neighbor, 

 expecting every moment to be swallowed up by 

 the upheaving waves ; such wouldst thou have 

 been, hadst thou then existed ! 

 . But, to return : the accumulating waters, 

 upon the solid but still heated crust, caused it 

 to crack, and, penetrating through it to the fluid 

 metals beneath, was converted into steam, or 

 decomposed ; and, as it expanded, forced the 

 crust asunder, and escaped, carrying with it a 

 quantity of the fluid mass. These explosions, 

 owing to the small resistance of the thin crust, 

 were very frequent ; and the earth's surface, in a 

 brief space of time, underwent an entire change 

 in its external arrangement. Instead of the 

 smooth and perfectly even surface, hills and 

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