410 MY LIFE [Chap. 



Agreement. They are both raised-up pieces of land. Sometimes a 

 volcano goes on fire and makes a creator, and then it bursts. When 

 it bursts you will always observe that down at the bottom of the volcano 

 and about ten miles round and round about it there lies cinders as large 

 as bricks, and as you proceed to the top of the volcano it always becomes 

 smaller, till at the mouth of it it is all dross, like very small coal. 



This last sentence is so precise and clear in its state- 

 ments that one might suppose it to be the result of personal 

 observation ! 



Another of the same class occurred in 1879, when in 

 answer to the question, " What evidence have we that lions 

 and tigers once lived in this country ? " the reply was — 



We have only this evidence that lions and tigers once lived in this 

 country, that when a man, or even any man or men, have been digging 

 for minerals, wells, or anything else, they have found the fossils, and it 

 has at last after a good long consideration and perseverance it has turned 

 out to be the skeleton of a lion or tiger. 



The same paper explains thunder as follows : — 



The cause of the noise made during thunderstorms is the meeting 

 of the electric and other gases. It is said that a gentleman caught a 

 glimpse of one of these collisions by means of a kite. It was thus found 

 out what was the cause of thunderstorms, and also what made the flash 

 of lightning. 



In 1880 we had the following answers to a question about 

 the causes of the extinction of animals, and as to any which 

 have become extinct since the appearance of man on the 

 earth : — 



(1) Giants, and the great fish which swallowed Jonah. 



(2) Extinct volcanoes not having erupted for a length of time is one 

 cause which has brought about the extinction of animals. 



(3) Animals which lived before the flood no longer exist except their 

 fossilized remains. Iothoraics, Pleathorus, Mammoth, Dothorium, Adam 

 and Eve never saw, having become extinct. 



(4) Animals which have become extinct since man has been on the 

 earth are Ammonites, Belemnites, Mammals and Productus horridus. 



(5) The unicorn is extinct. 



(6) Extinct means that they have gone away, but may become active 

 again. Some of the causes that they have become extinct are that they 

 have been caged up, etc. The animals that have become extinct since 

 the appearance of man are the jaguars. 



