56 The Bible of Nature 



envelope, the bulk of which gave rise to the 

 moon. 



Soon after the birth of the moon the earth be- 

 came consolidated (with a surface temperature of 

 about 1170 C.) and the moon may have been in- 

 fluential in determining high-pressure areas and 

 low-pressure areas over the surface of the crust, 

 which may have had something to do with prim- 

 itive depressions and .elevations. This, as Pro- 

 fessor Sollas says, was the second critical period 

 in the history of the earth, the stage of the "con- 

 sistentior status." It may have been forty mil- 

 lions of years ago, or much more. 



When, with continued cooling, the temperature 

 of the surface fell to 370 C., the steam in the at- 

 mosphere would begin to liquefy, and this was 

 the first step in the origin of the oceans. The hot 

 waters began to be localized in primitive faint de- 

 pressions, and, acting energetically on the silicates 

 of the primitive crust, began to be salt. In a man- 

 ner difficult to understand a distinction was es- 

 tablished between ocean basins and continental 

 areas. 



Through stages more or less like those hinted 

 at above the earth has reached its present state. 

 The vast nucleus or " centrosphere " seems to be 

 practically solid, the melting point of the metals 

 and metalloids being raised by the immense 

 pressure. Outside the central mass there is "a 



