THE ANCIENT APPEARANCE OF OUR EARTH. 365 



Geologists suppose that our eartli was once a 

 molten, liquid mass, which cooled by degrees until a 

 crust was formed, that slowly thickened until con- 

 densation began in the surroimding atmosphere, and 

 thus the water of the primeval ocean was formed. 

 At first this water must have been just below the 

 boiling point, and the query has arisen, How cool did 

 the sea become before vegetation began to appear in 

 it, and on the land then above the sea ? The partial 

 answer indicated by the few observations above is, 

 that the presence of vegetable life depended more on 

 the chemical composition of the water than on its 

 temperature. If it was as pure then as the larger 

 pool described above, the whole ocean was yet one 

 great steaming caldron when these veiy simple 

 aquatic plants, each apparently consisting of only 

 a single branching cell, began to grow in the shallow 

 places along its shores. Before this time, however, 

 other algae, like those which now grow in moist ter- 

 restrial places, may have been thriving on the land 

 in the steamy atmosphere. 



Sunday^ December ^Ist. — At 8 a. :^r. attended the 

 native church, where the missionary preaches. It 

 was well filled, and the attention manifested by all 

 was highly commendable. At the close of the ser- 

 vice four or five couples were married ; the pastor, 

 after performing the ceremony, explaining to the 

 husbands that they must support their wives, and 

 not, like the Alfura, who are heathens, live in idle- 

 ness, and expect their wives to support them. A 

 controleur^ who had been stationed in the interior, 

 back of Gorontalo, now arrived at Langowan, on his 



