SOLAR DAYS AND SOLAR NIGHTS. 43 



the continuity of deposit, while every living thing 

 that had existed perished, whether a denizen of the 

 air, the earth, or the waters ? 



62. Were the solar nights the glacial periods of 

 geologists ? If so, how is it that there is not 

 the slighest trace of glacial action observable in the 

 earliest geological formations ? Is it from this cause 



the innate temperature of the globe at the com- 

 mencement of our geological history was such, that 

 when a solar night did occur, the earth did not 

 become frigid ? 



63. As the seeds of plants must have existed in 

 the soil, and the spawn of fish in the ocean, at the 

 close of the more modern geological periods how 

 is it that the vegetative principle of the one, and 

 the vital principle of the other, must have both been 

 destroyed during the interval that occurred between 

 two consecutive geological periods, inasmuch as the 

 various species of fish and of plants that are found 

 to occur in any one geological epoch, are not identical 

 with those which are found in that which imme- 

 diately precedes it? Is it because of this the 

 seeds of plants and the spawn of fish were subjected 

 to a cold so intense during the interval that occurred 

 between the deposition of one geological system and 

 the commencement of the deposition of another, the 



