GEOLOGY. 593 



stars which had deviated from their path across the celestial 

 fields. 1 



In the Scandinavian mythology we discover some pic- 

 tures of the great events which then took place in the earth 

 and in the heavens. The Edda paints the ravages of the 

 volcanic eruptions and of the waves of a wild and untamed 

 ocean. This collection even contains some rhapsodical de- 

 scriptions of our cataclysms. This is the character of the 

 prophecies of the Vala, where it borrows its principal im- 

 ages from the sombre catastrophe of the deluge. The 

 inspired sibyl relates that at this time the sun rose in 

 the south, and that the east was invaded by polar ices. 

 M. Klee considers that these assertions support the theory 

 of a change in the axis of the globe. 2 



Naturalists are almost agreed as to the cause of the great 



1 Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, long before M. Klee, had enunciated a system ex- 

 actly corresponding to that of this geologist. He believed that it was the succes- 

 sive increase in the tropical vegetation and of the polar ices that made the globe 

 move alternately one way and another. According to our celebrated writer, this 

 system also explained the ancient traditions of the Egyptian priests, in which it 

 is said that formerly the sun rose where now it sets. Harmonies de la Nature, 

 Paris, 1806, t. ii., p. 96. 



2 The following are fragments of the prophecies of the Vala, drawn from the 

 Scandinavian Edda, in which allusion is made to the convulsions of the globe: 



" I remember," says the sibyl, " nine worlds and nine heavens. Before the 

 sons of Bor (the gods) raised the globes, they who created the gleaming Mid- 

 gaard, the sun shone in the south. In the east was seated the old woman in the 

 forest of iron (the polar ices). The sun is covered with clouds, the earth sinks 

 in the sea, the shining stars disappear from the heavens, clouds of smoke envelop 

 the all-nourishing tree, lofty flames mount even to heaven ; the sea rears itself 

 violently towards the skies and passes over the lands. Neither earth nor sun 

 exist any longer; the air is overcome by glittering streams. . . . she (the sibyl) for 

 the second time sees the earth, covered with verdure, rise from the sea." Fr. 

 Klee, Le Dtluge, p. 223. 



