THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



lies the real force that produces the lifting and 

 sinking, which permits the cliff beneath the coral 

 colony to slowly sink and just as slowly raises 

 the coast in other places. 



While for a short time we follow the strange- 

 ly bent horizontal folds, we feel the rapid in- 

 crease of the warmth of the earth. We have 

 left the cooling influence of the ocean, and have 

 penetrated into one of the very foundations of 

 the main land, as into a colossal mountain. The 

 same thing that arises whenever a tunnel is built 

 shows itself here in a higher degree: it is in- 

 creasingly hot. Now great perpendicular folds 

 break through the horizontal blocks. Streams of 

 water rush through the invisible crevices in the 

 grave-like night. We touch such a spring ; it is 

 boiling hot. Amid these transposed crevices 

 the lava lurks in gigantic bowls, and in subter- 

 ranean seas hollowed out of the rock, bursting 

 forth in destructive glow as soon as the pressure 

 shall be somewhat lessened. What has life to 

 do with such an abyss.? Fables tell of frightful 

 fire genii banished by the hand of the gods to 

 these depths and imprisoned by the weight of 

 the masses of stone. This significant picture is 

 justified by a glance into a volcano. Truly there 

 is a primitive giant imprisoned beneath the 

 weight of these miles of stone : the sun stage of 

 the globe, the flaming age lies enchained with 

 fetters of granite. When this flame still covered 

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