PR1MIGENIAL SKELETONS. 25 



tions. But such, a change in one portion of the earth would not 

 be likely to take place without a coincident change everywhere 

 else. While ice lay over a great portion of the earth, the rest of 

 its surface may have possessed a temperate or almost semitropical 

 climate, of peculiarly equable character the whole year round. 

 The race of men born in such a zone would probably be hardy 

 and strong, and this is precisely what we suppose our first ances- 

 tors to have been. But, though in what appear such favored 

 conditions, they have left to us, in nearly all the races that have 

 sprung from them over the whole world, a tradition of a great 

 catastrophe a flood. The chiefs of the then world, it seems, were 

 saved, and, whether in one ark, or in several strangely and won- 

 derfully built vessels, were preserved to again spread the human 

 race. But how came this flood, and when ? And why should 

 immense quantities of rain descend, and why should the seas rise 

 in every direction ? If we refer to the probable cause of the Gla- 

 cial period, we shall also see the origin of the flood. It is, we 

 believe, an accepted theory that the mountain ranges of the globe 

 were formed by the shrinking of the earth's crust. This was 

 caused by the diminishing lava or molten earth within having 

 contracted at length to such an extent as to have been often re- 

 moved during the globe's rotation on its axis far away from the 

 still self-supporting crust, till a stage was at length reached when 

 the outer crust became so cold that ice gradually formed over all 

 those parts that were furthest from the molten liquid. At the two 

 poles that is, furthest from the greatest sunshine, as also from 

 the lava (since the latter would be naturally drawn round with 

 the velocity of the equator, and therefore would be furthest from 

 the poles and nearest to the equator) there was the greatest 

 abundance of ice. After many centuries of this there came a 

 time when the crust could no longer support itself; the strain of 

 the internal lava beating loosely within was too great at times ; 

 great convulsions shook the earth's surface, the crust breaking in 

 long lines, and forcing up huge mountain ridges covered with 

 gigantic blocks of ice that rose thousands of feet high. The crust, 

 diminished in extent, again touched the molten lava, the ice 

 melted, volcanoes arose, steam escaped from the cracks, the whole 

 range of the Andes poured forth clouds of steam, the earth again 

 became warm. But what then happened ? The water that was 

 formed by the melting ice, that had not risen in steam to the 

 clouds, spread at once over the lessened area of the earth's surface ; 

 the seas rose in every direction and chilled the air ; and thus the 

 earth's outermost surface also once more cooling somewhat, the 

 vapor or clouds dispersed around descended again in torrents to 

 add to the great sea already spreading between the newly raised 

 and the ancient mountain ranges of the earth. This, then, is the 



