1 7 8 Natural History. 



tre of the globe; and the year consisted of three 

 hundred and sixty days. At that time, the irre- 

 gularities of the earth's surface being less consider- 

 able, and the distribution of land and sea being 

 more equal, the atmosphere was more temperate 

 and sakibrious, and, of course, the life of man was 

 prolonged greatly beyond its present limits. The 

 termination of this " golden age" might have been 

 effected by the proximity of a Cornet, condensing 

 the vapours of the atmosphere, and attracting the 

 subterraneous waters, which, bursting through the 

 exterior surface, precipitated indiscriminate por- 

 tions of the primitive earth into the cavities below. 

 The more perfect consolidation of the globe in the 

 southern hemisphere changed the centre of gravity, 

 which produced a proportionate deviation from the 

 plane of the equator. The ocean did not, at once, 

 however, sink to its present level. The posterior 

 accession of waters from seas hitherto inland, may 

 have crushed down other inferior vaults, and finally 

 settled its lowest degradations. As the land be- 

 came thus elevated above the bed of the ocean, 

 the cold became more intense, the vicissitudes of 

 climate were more severely felt, and the life of 

 man suffered a proportionate abbreviation. 



Mr. Howard was succeeded by M. P. Ber- 

 TRAND, of France, who next proposed a theory, 

 much less philosophical, and in every respect un- 

 worthy of a sober mind.' This wild and impious 

 theorist contends, that water was the original sub- 

 stance of our earth, but that this water, before 

 motion and heat were communicated to it, was a 

 solid mass of ice. Such was the condition of the 

 globe we Inhabit, when one of the larger order of 

 comets, after long wandering about, finally ended 

 its career, and fulfilled Its destination by striking 



/ Nouveaux Fnnclpcs de Giolo^le, Par f. Bertrand, &c. 8vo. Paris, I795» 



