CONTENTS. 



BEYOND THE LIMITS OF VISION; 



PAGE 



OR, THE WORLD BELOW THE MICROSCOPE. The infinitude 

 of the stellar universe. Contrast of natural with mag- 

 nified vision. The limit of microscopic vision. The 

 evidences of germ life below the reach of the micro- 

 scope. How scientists have got at the size and the 

 numbering of the atoms. The thousands of millions 

 of molecules that are still in the smallest object that 

 has ever been seen under the microscope. The recent 

 theory of the scientists that eacli atom is constituted 

 like smoke rings, that is of the vortical whirl of innu- 

 merable particles of ether immeasurably smaller than 

 the atom. The world of small things as well as of 

 great merges into the infinite. - 5 



THE POLAR GLACIERS. PART I. 



There must be elevations above the ocean in the southern 

 hemisphere sufficient to balance the great excess of land 

 in the northern. Other evidences of an enormous ice- 

 cap at the South Pole. Astronomical causes for the 

 alternate glaciation of the two polar regions. The 

 period is 21,000 years. The northern hemisphere is 

 now in the midst of its great secular summer. In 

 10,500 years it will be as much covered with water and 

 ice as the southern is now. Former periods have been 

 of far greater severity than the present. Evidences of 

 the great ice-cap all over the State of New York. - 

 About 70,000 years ago it retreated for the last time, 

 and man appeared on the stage of life. - 21 



THE POLAR GLACIERS. PART II. 



The causes of the prevailing winds, especially the trade 

 winds. Their effect on ocean currents. These always 

 flow into, and warm most, the hemisphere that is in its 



