11 



the cooling process which Hunt describes really happened 

 as he supposes then afterwards, when the centre of the 

 globe became molten under the accumulated pressure 

 and aquired an enormous temperature, in. that centre 

 must have taken place a precisely contrary phenomenon, 

 the molten matter in' the bowels of the earth, being 

 lighter must have risen to the surface which would aga,in 

 receive a fluid, and this time' a molten form. But we 

 can remark no subterraneous phenomena to confirm the 

 idea of such a process. 



The scientists Tomson: and Farbes assert that only the 

 upper stratum of the earth shares in the changed atmo- 

 spherical temperature of day and night, winter and sum- 

 mer. Below this we find a stratum of fixed tempera- 

 ture at a distance of from 80. to 86 feet below the sur- 

 face, where the thermometer indicates always from 9 to 

 10 degrees Reaumur. From this stratum downwards 

 the temperature steadily rises one degree to every 135 

 ieet, so that at a depth of 20.000 feet exists a tempe- 

 rature raised to the boiling point of waterj and at a depth 

 of from 9 to 10 miles the stone must be red-hot. On 

 this assumption all the centre of the earth's sphere must 

 consist of liquid fire. . . 



Fourier, going further in his researches,., points out 

 that by the laws of the transmission of heat, if we admit 

 the melting of stone at a temperature of 4400 degrees 

 Reaumur the solidification of earth would require 

 200,000,000 years or, if the melting point was ouly 300 

 degrees, the process of cooling down would still require 

 98,000,000 years. Such then is the antiquity of our 

 globe, it we can believe science ! 



On examining all these existent scientific theories of 

 the formation of earth; we see that they all in common 

 recognise in it a cosmic accident; that they go no further 

 than an original chaos of fluid or: gaseous matter, which 

 was converted into ' a planetary form . under the influence 

 of its rotation ; round an axis. They; leave out of account 

 organic life, intellect, free will ; and explain all the earths 



