THE DISCOVERY 



17 



For perhaps the sea is the one original element 

 and out of it have come all the others. In its 

 depths far dowTi in the chill waters beyond 

 our light and beyond our life, the rock strata 

 of the earth may have been molded into shape. 

 Centuries of time would have passed while the 

 outworn shells of sea life were falling from the 

 surface to the bottom and, with meteoric iron 

 and star dust, forming the body of the rock 

 strata. Centuries again would have passed 

 while the slow-moving water was rubbing the 

 strata into form and pressing it into substance 

 by its enormous weight. At last, when its time 

 was come, perhaps the great sea bed began to 

 rise. The lateral pressure of the earth's crust 

 forced it upward inch by inch, foot by foot, 

 through a long series of years until finally the 

 black slimy nose of the bed emerged from 

 the water and became an island. Another age 

 and the island had become a portion of a con- 

 tinent, and had baked hard and dry in the 

 sunlight. Still another age and perhaps the 

 nose had lifted into a mountain ridge, wearing 

 away by erosion, and thus finding its way by 

 the rivers back to its early home in the sea.* 



* Such was the theory of science only a few years ago, 

 but to-day the scientists are beginning to modify this 

 view a little as regards the abysmal depths, while main- 



The origi- 

 nal element. 



Forming of 

 rock lin/ers 

 in the sea 

 bed. 



